The implementation and use of GPS grade control in surface coal mining

摘要

Over the last 10 years, few technologies have provided as much cost saving potential to the surface coal mining industry as GPS. Although the early use of GPS was limited to surveying, today its applications have expanded to include nearly every unit operation in mining. One of the first and most important areas where GPS technology expanded its role in mining is in the field of grade control. It was in the mid 1990's that various companies began to develop products that would use GPS receivers mounted in heavy equipment to reduce or eliminate the need to set survey stakes. The primary goal of these early systems was to increase machine efficiency by eliminating the need to re-survey and re-grade areas that had not been constructed to within certain tolerances. The concepts behind these applications were relatively straight forward and simple. The actual implementation of them was not.