Recent developments in roof bolting intelligent roof mapping and control

摘要

Automation and on-board monitoring and control of the bolting cycle have been beyond the grasp of mining companies for many years. The underground environment is particularly harsh and is subject to many unpredictable variables. Therefore, technologies such as robotics, computerisation and automation have been extremely difficult to achieve. Additionally, because of the presence of explosive gases, all electrical and electronic equipment must be contained within approved, explosion-proof enclosures. Consequently, despite the significant advances made by other industries, for the greater part, underground coal mining has remained very much a manual activity. However, with the recent development of intrinsically safe computer control equipment, which is small, safe and robust enough to interface with drilling equipment, mining personnel now have such tools available to them.