Rotary boring mining machine inertial steering system

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 and/or 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 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 configured to convey the geological material to a mine exit;
• and
• an inertial guidance system configured to sense movement of the mining machine and provide directional guidance as an aid in guiding the steerable drive mechanism along the intended excavation path, the initial guidance system including—
• 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 and/or 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/or 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/or 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 excavation path.