Components of an innovative electro-control system for undeground mining - analysis

In the era of Industry 4.0, coal companies began to reach for new innovative technologies that increase work safety and their possible use affects the economic improvement of companies. One of them is to equip a powered roof support section with an electrohydraulic control system with a monitoring system that tracks operating parameters. The development of a monitoring system for a powered roof support is a key investment in new longwall complexes. It allows rapid diagnostics of status of the support. Currently used system designed to control the powered roof support are based on blocks of manually controlled distributors. The pilot control is currently the leading control that properly functions in all conditions, allowing to adapt to the requirements resulting from the construction of the section. A number of tests and analyses must be conducted prior to introducing the new control based on an innovative approach into operation. The basic research has focused on identifying the user interface that will potentially be the solution for the entire system. The user has defined how the driver should look like and how it will be operated and maintained. The results of the first series of tests on the elements of an innovative electronic control system of the powered roof support enabled to develop a prototype version. The assumptions for the system were verified during the conducted development studies. The article presents preliminary results of development research for devices included in the innovative control system of the powered roof support.