The Landmark Longwall Automation Project

ABSTRACT: Inertial navigation technology has, for the first time, allowed the position of a longwall shearer to be mapped in three dimensions. Following the success of the technology in highwall mining and successful trials on a longwall face, the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) commissioned a three year “Landmark ” project that will ad-vance longwall automation to the level of “on-face observation ” by the end of 2004. The pa-per discusses project outcomes which have been divided into a number of areas, each address-ing a specific requirement of a successful longwall automation process. The cornerstone of these, automatic face alignment, has been successfully demonstrated underground. The pro-ject has the support of major longwall equipment manufacturers including Eickhoff, DBT and Joy Mining Machinery.