Research on the Three-Machines Perception System and Information Fusion Technology for Intelligent Work Faces

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Sep 18;23(18):7956. doi: 10.3390/s23187956.

Abstract

The foundation of intelligent collaborative control of a shearer, scraper conveyor, and hydraulic support (three-machines) is to achieve the precise perception of the status of the three-machines and the full integration of information between the equipment. In order to solve the problems of information isolation and non-flow, independence between equipment, and weak cooperation of three-machines due to an insufficient fusion of perception data, a fusion method of the equipment's state perception system on the intelligent working surface was proposed. Firstly, an intelligent perception system for the state of the three-machines in the working face was established based on fiber optic sensing technology and inertial navigation technology. Then, the datum coordinate system is created on the working surface to uniformly describe the status of the three-machines and the spatial position relationship between the three-machines is established using a scraper conveyor as a bridge so that the three-machines become a mutually restricted and collaborative equipment system. Finally, an indoor test was carried out to verify the relational model of the spatial position of the three-machines. The results indicate that the intelligent working face three-machines perception system based on fiber optic sensing technology and inertial navigation technology can achieve the fusion of monitoring data and unified expression of equipment status. The research results provide an important reference for building an intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making, and automatic execution system for coal mines.

Keywords: attitude monitoring; cooperative control; intelligent mining; intelligent working face; optical fiber sensing; perceptual information fusion; three-machines linkage.