Status of intelligent coal mining technology and potential key technologies in China

Since the realization of mechanized mining, further realization of intelligence toliberate miners has become the unremitting pursuit of the world’s mining industry.On the basis of reviewing the development process of intelligent coal mining technologies, the research and application status of intelligent coal mining technologies as well as the potential key technologies in China were systematically reviewed and analyzed.Firstly, it introduced the development process of intelligent mining technology, outlined the requirements of coal mining face from the development stages of motorization, automation and informationization, and then put forward the basic requirements of intelligent coal mining face.Then,the innovation status of intelligent coal mining technology in China were analyzed and summarized from four aspects: scientific research plan, domestic academic paper publication, relevant patent authorization and domestic coal mine practice exploration.The results show that China has begun to attach importance to intelligence since the 11th five year plan.Through more than ten years of vigorous development, nearly 10 national key research and development projects related to intelligent coal mining technology have been approved.At the same time, a large number of academic papers and authorized patents have been produced.These innovative achievements have formed four basic models of smart coal mining, including thin coal seam, medium thick coal seam, large mining height, super large mining height and extra thick coal seam, and have built nearly 200 intelligent coal mining working faces at different levels.On this basis, this paper sums up 35 smart control technologies that have been mature and applied in primary smart coal faces based on shearer, hydraulic support, scraper conveyor, belt conveyor and centralized monitoring.Finally, aiming at the technical problems of intelligen coal mining face under complex conditions, five key technologies of intelligent coal mining which need to be further studied in the future are proposed and corresponding technological breakthrough ideas are given.These include precise positioning technology, coal-rock interface identification technology, surrounding rock adaptive support technology, autonomous correction technology and intelligent coal traffic sensing technology.Based on these investigations and analysis, it is concluded that the smart coal mining equipment technologies in China at present have reached an international advanced level of autonomy, complete sets and practicality.However, the autonomy ability and of application scope of the smart coal mining working face need to be further improved in the future.