Rotary boring mining machine inertial steering system
AssigneeThe Mosaic Company
InventorsRoy W. Tivas, Erik Rasmussen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mining system with an inertial guidance system configured to enable precise excavation of geological material without a need to advance a survey line over a long distance and/or nonlinear excavation path, thereby maximizing productivity of the mind by minimizing a width of un-mined material necessary for support between adjacent excavation paths and minimizing equipment downtime.
Claims21
A mining system with advanced directional guidance configured to enable precise excavation of geological material without a need to advance a survey line over a long distance a nonlinear excavation path, the mining system comprising:
- a mining machine having a steerable drive mechanism configured to advance the mining machine along an intended, nonlinear excavation path, a cutting mechanism configured to separate geological material from a wall of the excavation path, an auger mechanism configured to collect the separated geological material, and a conveyor mechanism configured to convey the collected geological material to a rear of the mining machine;
- a conveyor chain comprising a plurality of conveyor sections configured to convey the geological material to a mine exit;
- a bridge coupling the conveyor chain to the mining machine, wherein the bridge is configured to provide degrees of freedom to enable portions of the conveyor chain to move side-to-side and be rotated left-or-right to align the conveyor chain substantially perpendicular to a face of excavation, and to align the conveyor mechanism and the conveyor chain;
- and
- an inertial guidance system operably coupled to the bridge, the inertial guidance system comprising
- at least one accelerometer configured to sense acceleration along an x-axis of the mining machine, along a y-axis of the mining machine, and along a z-axis of the mining machine;
- at least one gyroscope configured to sense rotation about the x-axis of the mining machine, rotation about the y-axis of the mining machine, and rotation about the z-axis of the mining machine;
- and
- a programmable logic controller configured to receive sensed acceleration data from the at least one accelerometer and rotation data from the at least one gyroscope, determine movement of the mining machine as a function of time, and compute directional guidance to maintain advancement of the mining machine along the intended, nonlinear excavation path.
An inertial guidance system for a mining machine, the internal guidance system operably coupled to a bridge connecting the mining machine and a conveyor chain, the system comprising:
- at least one accelerometer configured to sense acceleration along an x-axis of the mining machine, along a y-axis of the mining machine, and along a z-axis of the mining machine;
- at least one gyroscope configured to sense rotation about the x-axis of the mining machine, rotation about the y-axis of the mining machine, and rotation about the z-axis of the mining machine;
- a programmable logic controller configured to receive sensed acceleration data from the at least one accelerometer and rotation data from the at least one gyroscope, determine movement of the mining machine via movement of the bridge in three-dimensional space as a function of time, and compute directional guidance to maintain advancement of the mining machine along the intended, nonlinear excavation path;
- and
- a communication bus configured to transmit the computed directional guidance to a steerable drive mechanism of the mining machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.