Real-time positioning of equipment and material tracking of waste streams in surface coal mining – a case study

The primary objective of the case study is to improve monitoring, controlling, planning and managing the extraction processes in surface lignite mining. Under the North Bohemian Lignite Basin (also Most Basin) conditions and the Sokolov Basin, wheeled excavators are deployed as the main technology for extracting coal and overlying rock. Their real-time spatial position can be tracked based on data from GNSS technology, inclinometers, and incremental rotary encoders. The measured data is sent to a remote server and stored in the database. It also serves to calculate volumes of extracted masses. Volume calculation, space position visualisation, and wheel boom movements are performed in KVASoftware. It is a program designed for modelling and designing quarries. Knowing the position of the wheel against the digital terrain (quarry), the model is essential for the implementation of many risk-elimination applications, namely with respect to the geological conditions, occupational safety, observance of the profile grade line, the area of extraction, qualitative parameters of the raw material, etc. The mathematical model of backfilling extracted materials is also an integral part of the above-mentioned system