Robot coal mining is far from simple! Big data and artificial intelligence are currently applied

On June 6, the launch meeting and implementation plan review meeting of the national key research and development plan "Large Mine Comprehensive Tunneling Robot" project were held in Shanxi Coking Coal, marking the official launch of the project in Shanxi Coking Coal. As one of the three coal mine robot projects in 2020 under the "Intelligent Robot" national key research and development plan supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the project plans to complete research and development in three years. After the project is successfully developed, it can effectively alleviate the tension in improving the connection of coal mine mining, realize the organic integration of big data, artificial intelligence, coal mine excavation, and safe and efficient mining, and effectively liberate front-line excavation workers from the most difficult and unsafe working environment. , allowing miners to work and live more decently, is of great and far-reaching significance for promoting changes in coal mining methods and the comprehensive transformation and reform of Shanxi Province.

Energy will continue to play a vital role in the development of our country's national economy. Since my country has not yet completed industrialization, the level of urbanization will continue to increase, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the level of electrification. It is still at the stage of the most vigorous consumption of energy and raw materials. Among them, coal is an important energy source for my country's urbanization construction. In 2020, national coal consumption will be approximately 4.01 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 0.9. It is expected that coal will account for more than 40% of my country's primary energy consumption in 2035. Therefore, for the coal industry, our country has been committed to promoting intelligence, resolving excess production capacity, and improving energy utilization.

Coal mine intelligence is the technical support for the high-quality development of coal. my country's coal mining technology has gone through four main stages: manual blasting, ordinary mechanized mining, comprehensive mechanized mining and the current intelligent mining. Coal mine intelligence is the fourth major technological change in the coal industry.

Coal mine robots are a key part of promoting the intelligence of the coal industry. The "Key Research and Development Catalog of Coal Mine Robots" divides coal mine robots into five categories: excavation, coal mining, transportation, safety control, and rescue. During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, my country has eliminated about 1.07 billion tons of backward production capacity. In the face of the intelligentization of coal mines, it has carried out "large-scale mine comprehensive excavation robots", "complex geological conditions coal mine auxiliary transportation robots", "impact mines oriented "Anti-collision drilling robots and other application demonstration projects" have achieved certain results and standardized some indicators.

At the beginning of 2019, the "Key Research and Development Catalog of Coal Mine Robots" was announced, proposing to focus on key positions and dangerous positions, and focus on promoting the research and development of 5 categories and 38 types of coal mine robots. With the introduction of national policies, many scientific research institutions, coal companies, and robot manufacturing companies have begun to explore and develop underground coal mine robots.

In the new development period of the 14th Five-Year Plan, our country has put forward new development requirements for improving energy efficiency, and relevant special directions have also been adjusted to some extent.

In March 2020, eight ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Intelligent Coal Mines" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which proposed new directions and plans for the development of intelligent coal mines. new conditions, and once again emphasized the goals and tasks of continuing to deepen the intelligent development of the coal industry.

The "Opinions" pointed out that the intelligentization of coal mines is the core technical support for the high-quality development of the coal industry, and it is necessary to integrate artificial intelligence, industrial Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, robots, intelligent equipment, etc. with modern coal development Utilize deep integration to ultimately form an intelligent system with comprehensive perception, real-time interconnection, analysis and decision-making, autonomous learning, dynamic prediction, and collaborative control, which can realize coal mine development, mining (stripping), transportation, ventilation, washing, safety assurance, and operation and management. Intelligent operation of other processes. This integrated and intelligent development direction is of great significance for improving the safety production level of coal mines and ensuring a stable supply of coal.

On April 6, 2021, Anbiao National Mining Product Safety Marking Center Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Anbiao National Center) released the "Safety Marking Management Plan for Underground Coal Mine Robots" and "Underground Coal Mine Robots "Basic Safety Requirements (Trial)" has also put forward safety requirements for coal mine robots. The relevant requirements have been further clarified and the standards have been continuously improved.

At present, some coal mines in my country are carrying out intelligent construction work, but there are problems such as lagging basic theoretical research and development, incomplete technical standards and specifications, insufficient platform support, insufficient technical equipment support, and lack of high-end talents.

At the same time, from the perspective of market demand, policy demand and technical requirements, the difficulties in promoting and applying coal mine robots are also very difficult. From the demand side, coal mine disasters are not normal events in coal mines. Some intelligent robots are used less frequently and the speed of research and development iteration is not fast, which affects the rescue effect to a certain extent. Moreover, coal mine disaster relief robots require a professional team to maintain and maintain, and a team of professional operators needs to be trained. The cost of establishing such a professional team is relatively high. At the same time, policies and laws and regulations on safety licensing, testing and evaluation, and standardization need to be clearer to guide the promotion and application of coal mine robots in a more efficient and reasonable manner.

In addition, technological improvement is also an important aspect in promoting the development of coal mine disaster relief robots, especially in terms of explosion-proof design, explosion-proof materials, lightweight structures, electronic equipment integration, artificial intelligence, and testing methods. These are the problems that need to be solved in the process of practical use of coal mine disaster relief robots. Some people have proposed that artificial intelligence technologies in other fields can be used for reference in coal mine robots, such as speech recognition and analysis, image enhancement and obstacle recognition, hazardous gas component analysis and identification, location navigation based on image features, and other technologies.

In order to promote the high-quality development of the coal industry and promote the transformation and upgrading of the coal industry, the "Opinions" divided into three parts detailed planning goals:

By 2021, build various types of , intelligent demonstration coal mines of different models have initially formed an information transmission and automated operation technology system for major links such as coal mine development design, geological support, production, and safety, basically achieving the goal of reducing manpower and improving efficiency in the excavation working face, and reducing the number of workers in the fully mechanized mining working face. Human or unmanned operation, unattended and remote monitoring of fixed positions in underground and open-pit coal mines.

——By 2025, large-scale coal mines and coal mines with severe disasters will basically become intelligent, form a technical specification and standard system for intelligent construction of coal mines, and realize development design, geological protection, mining (stripping), transportation, and ventilation. Intelligent decision-making and automated collaborative operation of systems such as washing and selection logistics, robot operations in key underground positions, and open-pit coal mines to achieve intelligent continuous operations and unmanned transportation.

——By 2035, all types of coal mines will be basically intelligent, build a multi-industry chain, multi-system integrated coal mine intelligent system, and build an intelligent coal mine system with intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making, and automatic execution.

Three points are clarified from the goals and paths:

1) The vision of intelligent coal development is to realize real-time perception of multi-source information in coal mines across time and space, and achieve intrinsic safety in closed-loop risk management and control; The process of man-machine-environment-management digital interconnection operates efficiently and collaboratively, and the production site is fully automated. Coal mine workers will have more happiness, and coal companies will create more value.

2) The intelligent construction of coal mines should adhere to the principles of classified construction and implementation of policies according to mines; cultivating models and leading by demonstration; comprehensive promotion and graded compliance; safety and efficiency, and the principle of quality first.

3) The main path for coal mine intelligence is “intelligent production decision-making and control of robot operations”

At the same time, in December 2020, the National Energy Administration and the National Mine Safety Supervision Bureau A notice was issued on the construction of the first batch of intelligent demonstration coal mines, and 71 coal mines were identified as the first batch of national intelligent demonstration coal mines, including 66 underground mines and 5 open-pit mines.

63 coal mines were upgraded and renovated intelligently, and 8 new (renovated and expanded) intelligent coal mines were built. We have formulated intelligent technical standards for coal mines such as the "Technical Conditions and Evaluation for Classification and Grading of Intelligent Coal Mines" and "Technical Conditions and Evaluation for Classification and Grading of Intelligent Coal Mining Faces", and developed 4 models of complete sets of intelligent mining technologies and equipment. , forming a relatively mature intelligent coal mine construction and promotion model.

It can be predicted from my country’s energy structure that coal will be difficult to be replaced on a large scale for a long time to come. At the same time, in the future, in the context of turbulent international political situations and the prevalence of international trade protection measures, For a long period of time, coal will remain the "ballast stone" for a safe and stable supply of energy and the "stabilizer" to support energy structure adjustment and transformation and development.

However, under the overall requirement of reaching carbon peak and carbon neutrality, it is also necessary to transform the way coal is produced and utilized, taking the opportunity of the fourth coal technology revolution to move towards digital and intelligent new industries and new business formats. transformation. Facing the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, energy development during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period needs to fully implement the new energy security strategy of "Four Revolutions and One Cooperation" and firmly follow the path of smart, green and sustainable development. Coal is my country's basic energy source. , its high-quality development is of great significance.

As the core technical support for the high-quality development of the coal industry, coal mine intelligence is a new stage of comprehensive mechanization and informatization development of coal mines, a new direction for the revolution in coal productivity and production methods, and the "fourth important Technological Change”. Accelerating the construction of intelligent coal mines, building a new system of intelligent and green coal mine industry, and realizing intelligent, safe and efficient mining and clean utilization of coal resources are the strategic tasks and the only way for high-quality development of my country's coal industry in the new era. Promoting changes in coal development and utilization methods is also an important measure to reduce coal carbon emissions, build a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, improve the quality of energy supply, and strive to achieve the long-term goals of carbon peaking in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060.

It is hoped that more people will be able to participate in the construction of coal mine robots in the future, allowing technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, the Internet and big data to protect the coal mining industry.