US 5,310,248 AGranted

Automatic vein identifying method and follower apparatus for use in a robot mining system

AssigneeColorado School of Mines

InventorsRobert H. King, Dale L. Lauer

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Abstract

The present apparatus makes use of a novel mineral identification system to not only identify the desired minerals and estimate a percent of mineralization, but also locate their presence on the mining face in an x, y coordinate manner in order to guide the mining operation of the associated robot mining apparatus. This is accomplished through the use of a camera and video monitor system which picks up the light returned from the mining face as illuminated by the light source. Therefore, on a pixel by pixel basis the camera identifies the light intensity returned from the mining face. In order to obtain the unique light signature of the desired minerals, a plurality of narrow band light filters is used to screen the light reflected from the mining face prior to its being focussed on the video camera. Thus, a three dimensional matrix is formed, consisting of data entries for each pixel of the video image for each frequency of interest as determined by the filter used to filter the returned light prior to its focussing onto the video camera.

Claims24

Dependent claims

An automatic vein follower for dynamically identifying a vein of mineralization in a mine face comprising:

means for generating a broad spectrum beam of light, which beam of light is aimed at said mining face to illuminate said mining face;
means aimed at said illuminated mining face and responsive to said beam of light as returned from said illuminated mining face, for producing an n * m pixel image, with each pixel being representative of a returned light level from a corresponding location on said illuminated mining face, where n and m are positive integers greater than 1;
a plurality of narrow bandwidth filter means, each transmissive of only a predefined range of frequencies of light;
means for interposing a selected one of said narrow bandwidth filter means between said illuminated mining face and said producing means to block the transmission of all of said returned light beam, except said narrow band of frequencies passed by said selected narrow bandwidth filter means, from said illuminated mining face to said producing means;
means for storing at least one mineral signature representative of the relative returned light level for a plurality of frequencies for a designated mineral;
means for comparing said returned light level for at least one of said n * m pixels for a plurality of images, produced by sequentially interposing each of a plurality of said narrow bandwidth filter means between said illuminated mining face and said producing means, with at least one of said stored mineral signatures;
and
means responsive to said pixel for a predetermined number of said images being of illumination magnitude within a predetermined distance from said corresponding mineral signature value for identifying the presence of said mineral in said mineral face at a location thereon corresponding to said pixel.

5 more elements

A method of automatically and dynamically identifying a vein of mineralization in a mine face comprising the steps of:

generating a broad spectrum beam of light, which beam of light is aimed at said mining face to illuminate said mining face;
producing, in response to said beam of light as returned from said illuminated mining face, with a camera an n * m pixel image, with each pixel being representative of a returned light level from a corresponding location on said illuminated mining face, where n and m are positive integers greater than 1;
interposing a selected one of a plurality of narrow bandwidth filters, each transmissive of only a predefined range of frequencies of light between said illuminated mining face and said camera to block the transmission of all of said returned light beam, except said narrow band of frequencies passed by said selected narrow bandwidth filter, from said illuminated mining face to said camera;
storing at least one mineral signature representative of the relative returned light level for a plurality of frequencies for a designated mineral;
comparing said returned light level for at least one of said n * m pixels for a plurality of images, produced by sequentially interposing each of a plurality of said narrow bandwidth filters between said illuminated mining face and said camera, with at least one of said stored mineral signatures;
and
identifying, in response to said pixel for a predetermined number of said images being of illumination magnitude within a predetermined distance from said corresponding mineral signature value, the presence of said mineral in said mineral face at a location thereon corresponding to said pixel.

4 more elements

An automatic vein follower for dynamically identifying a vein of mineralization in a mine face comprising:

means for generating a broad spectrum beam of light, which beam of light is aimed at said mining face to illuminate said mining face;
means aimed at said illuminated mining face and responsive to said beam of light as returned from said illuminated mining face, for producing an n * m pixel image, with each pixel being representative of a returned light level from a corresponding location on said illuminated mining face, where n and m are positive integers greater than 1;
means for storing at least one mineral signature representative of the relative returned light level for a plurality of frequencies for a designated mineral:
a plurality of narrow bandwidth filer means, each transmissive of only a predefined range of frequencies of light which range is centered about a center frequency corresponding to one of said plurality of mineral signature frequencies;
means for interposing a selected one of said narrow bandwidth filter means between said illuminated mining face and said producing means to block the transmission of all of said returned light beam, except said narrow band of frequencies passed by said selected narrow bandwidth filter means, from said illuminated mining face to said producing means;
means for comparing said returned light level for at least one of said n * m pixels for a plurality of images, produced by sequentially interposing each of a plurality of said narrow bandwidth filter means between said illuminated mining face and said producing means, with at least one of said stored mineral signatures;
means responsive to said pixel for a predetermined number of said images being of illumination magnitude within a predetermined distance from said corresponding mineral signature value for identifying the presence of said mineral in said mineral face at a location thereon corresponding to said pixel;
means for determining the centroid of said identified locations on said illuminated mining face containing said mineral;
means for mechanically mining said illuminated mining face;
and
means responsive to said identifying means for guiding said mining means to mine on said mining face in a location about said determined centroid.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.