16th IFAC Symposium on Automation in Mining, Mineral

and Metal Processing

August 25-28, 2013. San Diego, California, USA

Concept of Shield-Data-Based Horizon Control

for Longwall Coal Mining Automation
Mirjam Holm*, Stephan Beitler*, Thorsten Arndt*,
Armin Mozar**, Martin Junker**, Christian Bohn*

*Clausthal University of Technology; Institute of Electrical Information Technology,

Leibnizstraße 28, 38678 Clausthal Zellerfeld, Germany
(Tel: +49 5323-722342; e-mail: {holm, beitler, arndt, bohn}@iei.tu-clausthal.de)

** RAG Deutsche Steinkohle

Shamrockring 1, 44623 Herne, Germany
(e-mail:{armin.mozar, martin.junker}@rag.de)

Abstract: Coal is an important fossil fuel and will also be for the next decades. Thus, there have been
several approaches and researches in longwall coal mining automation which are mainly focused on the
shearer as the executing machine. In addition approaches of coal interface detection have to be taken into
account for horizon control to reach autonomous shearer guidance. The shield-data-based horizon control
is an alternative control approach which integrates data from the roof support as input and feedback to
reach an automatic cutting drum height adjustment with the aim to follow the seam trend, generate a
defined face opening and keep it. This article contains the basics and difficulties of the control concept
including a short introduction to the simulation model as well as the scheme and the description of the
shield-data-based horizon control. Some simulation results will be shown, as well as results of the
experimental tests.
Keywords: longwall mining automation, shearer horizon control

1. MOTIVATION 2. LONGWALL MINING

There have been several attempts of coal mining automation There are two longwall mining methods, one using the
during the last decades to improve safety and productivity. shearer the other one using the plow. Today the shearer is the
One important method in underground coal mining is the more important exploitation machine because the majority of
longwall mining, where the main equipment includes the present coal is mined from thick seams. Thus, the work
shields for roof support, the armored face conveyer (AFC) to presented in this paper in focused on the shearer.
remove the cut coal and the shearer or plow as exploitation
machine. The horizon control, to keep the longwall workface 2.1 Longwall workface and commonly used automatics
in the seam, and the shearer positioning are still critical points
in automation and also focus of the researches during the last
Fig. 1 shows the assembly of a longwall workface.
years. This paper presents a new developed control concept
for horizon control, the shield-data-based horizon control
(SDHC). The aim of the SDHC is to achieve an automatic
cutting drum height adjustment for the shearer on the basis of
the seam data delivered by the roof supports to provide an
autonomous mode even if the seam trend changes.
In section 2 a short introduction to the controlled system and
the state of the art in longwall automation is given. Section 3
introduces the workface simulator, the system characteristic,
the difficulties in the system behavior and a description of the
control objective is given. The principle concept of the
SDHC and its structure are presented in section 4, followed Fig. 1. Principle of a longwall workface
by an introduction to the test system as well as some test
results in section 5. This article closes with a conclusion and In the front of the workface is the shearer which is connected
an outlook on future work. to the AFC. The AFC is the runway of the shearer and has
also the task to transport the cut coal out of the workface.
Behind the AFC the shields for the roof support are placed.

978-3-902823-42-7/2013 © IFAC 98 10.3182/20130825-4-US-2038.00074

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They are connected with a bar to the AFC. Because of the
connection of the particular components, the system has to be
high automated to be efficient. Thus underground longwall
mining already uses high automated equipment for a safe and
productive work process.
Researches and automation projects often are focused on only
one part of the system, e.g. the shearer. So the subsystems
themselves have already reached a high degree of
automation. Thus, today it is common that the movement of
the roof supports and the AFC are done automatically by the
shield control system, whereas other processes in the
workface are still the task of an operator. This causes the
effect, that the manual control is only based on the miner’s
knowledge and experiences. Today a monitoring system is
often used to store and provide information to the operator as
basis for specific decisions and analyses. Thus, the process
control system at the surface is a commonly used equipment
which has the monitoring task of the whole mine. All signals
and information are collected in an integrated data base.
Though there are several automation approaches for the
particular components but a completely autonomous longwall
workface is not reached up to now.
2.2 State of the art in longwall mining automation
As mentioned above high automated equipment is already
used in longwall mining but there are still a lot of tasks to be
managed. Two important topics on the way to an autonomous
longwall workface are the horizon control and the therefore
required coal interface detection (CID). Therefore, these two
points were also the focus of research in recent years. The
task to guide the shearer and with that the linked equipment is
the focus of the horizon control, because the movement
through the seam is mainly affected by the cutting path of the
shearer. Thus, the cuttings of the shearer need to be in
horizon to follow the seam direction, which is only possible
if the seam direction can be identified. This is commonly still
the task of an operator who is partially supported by CID
technologies. The researches in the field of coal layer
detection are based on several approaches as vibration
detection e.g. used by Yang et al. (2010) or Liu et al. (2011),
motor current monitoring of the cutting drum as in Mowrey
(1992), infrared thermography e.g. as in Ralston et al. (2012),
camera detection of marker bands e.g. as in Reid et al. (2010)
as well as natural gamma radiation and radar e.g. as in
Bausov et al. (2007). An overview of these approaches is also
given in Beitler et al. (2013a). Not all of these approaches are
commonly used or available, those which are available can
only give an optimal output in specific conditions. Therefore
modern shearers often have a multi sensor set.
There is only one main topic for the horizon control which
includes the cut automation in recent researches, the memory
cut. The memory cut is a commonly used automation modus
where the operator performs a cut manually. During the run
of the exploitation machine all important parameters are
stored and repeated in the following runs by the shearer.
Several approaches which are based on neural networks or
other biologically inspired methods to achieve an adaptive
cut require this taught path. These are for example neural
99
network approaches as described in Fan et al. (2010) and Su
et al. (2010) or another genetic algorithm as described in Mi
et al. (2010) and an Artificial Immune as in Wang et al.
(2009). Also the outcome of the ARCAP landmark project,
the enhanced horizon control (EHC), which is based on a cut
model and a seam model and furthermore uses an inertial
navigation system (INS) for 3D shearer positioning
measurement, is a memory cut based method as described in
Reid et al. (2005).
The developed algorithm of shield-data-based horizon control
take several work face components into account, the above
mentioned CID methods could be included but are not
necessary. The shield-data-based horizon control is not an
extension of the memory cut like most other approaches. That
means an autonomous cut can be started already in the first
run without the assistance of an operator, and changes of the
seam trend will be taken into account automatically.
3. CONTROL SYSTEM
The main parts of the control system are the shearer, the AFC
and the roof support. In addition to the named workface
components a monitoring system is essential, which has the
function to store, edit and provide necessary data. The
workface components are equipped with different sensors to
monitor the considered process.
3.1 Simulation model
Longwall mining is a complex process. Mathematically
descriptions of the system behavior possibly exist for single
sub systems e.g. the adjustment of the cutting drum height,
but a consideration of all components to describe the whole
mining process is difficult. Nevertheless the whole system
with the main parts has to be considered completely to reach
an advanced degree of automation. Thus, the main workface
components of the system and their special tasks are modeled
in a two dimensional simulation model, corresponding to
Fig. 2. The cutting drum height can be given manual or by
calculation of a control algorithm. The executed cut and the
resulting positions of the equipment are determined by the
simulation model. Therefore several force and torque
equations have to be calculated to achieve an even force
distribution.
Roof host rock
Seam
Floor host rock
Fig. 2. Structure of the simulation model
The simulation model was build up by employees of the Otto
von Guericke University of Magdeburg in cooperation with
IFAC MMM 2013
August 25-28, 2013. San Diego, USA
the German mining company RAG to receive an adequate
system behavior. Therefore, the experience of miners is used.
For an easier consideration of the simulation and test results
only the defined seam boundaries and the cut contour of the
lower cutting drum at the ground are displayed.
3.2 Non controlled system behavior
The simulation model can be used to test the control
algorithms but also shows the difficulties of the non
controlled system in order to the reaction towards a defined
cutting contour of the shearer. The resulting floor and roof
data as well as equipment specific measurement values of the
different components are calculated by the simulator. Fig. 3
shows a result for a given straight seam where the equipment
was fit in the displayed boundaries. At approximately 9 m the
shearer executed one undercut of 0.05 m. After this the lower
cutting drum of the shearer is adjusted at a neutral position
which corresponds to the ground line of the armored face
conveyer. The straight trend of the roof layer is predefined
for this simulation and the upper cutting drum is adjusted in a
small distance under the roof, so this given boundary did not
change during the simulation because it is assumed that the
left thin coal layer detaches itself from the rock roof layer.
Additionally it is expected that the roof is not influenced by
disturbances e.g. roof fall.
1
height (m)
-1
-2
5 10 15
face advance (m)
Fig. 3. Roof layer and cut contour at the ground for a
simulation run of the non controlled system with one small
undercut at 9 m
For the above mentioned situation Fig. 3 shows that the cut
contour at the floor attains a downward trend despite of the
neutral cut position after a small undercut. This behavior
illustrates that not only the cut contour of the shearer but also
the actual position of the armored face conveyer is
responsible for the further cut trend.
Each cut, respectively the workface movement and the
resulting equipment position lead to changing initial
conditions for the next step. The different reaction of the
system for upward cutting or downward cutting shows the
nonlinear system behavior. Considering the cut contour of the
floor as comparable to a step response it is obvious that a
stable rest position is not reached by the system without a
recurring override by an operator or another control
algorithm. The attempt of a height correction always causes a
100
change of the AFC position and thereby a new initial
situation. Thus a compensation of this trend has to be taken
into account in automation algorithms to avoid a permanent
overdrive in the resulting heights.
3.3 Control Objective
The main target of the SDHC is to follow the seam trend with
a predefined face opening. The seam trend is given by the
roof respectively by the inclination of the canopy. Therefore
the controller attempts to align the AFC and the roof support
base in a predefined distance to the roof with an inclination
difference as small as possible oriented to the roof.
The height adjustment of the cutting drums is the only way to
influence the face opening and the inclination of the AFC and
thus the movement of the longwall workface. Therefore the
height adjustment is the main task for the control algorithm.
Fig 4 shows the fundamental strategy of reaching a defined
face opening. How it can be seen in Fig. 4 beside the heights
of the roof support the inclination of the components is
important to calculate the face opening at the shearer position
and to align the equipment parallel to the roof in the
predefined distance.
Fig. 4. Required cut trend for an oversized or undersized face
opening
The seam gives the environmental conditions for the longwall
workface. For efficiency reasons, the shearer should only cut
coal exactly in between the seam boundaries, so that only
coal and no host rock is cut. Thus, the thickness of the seam
is an important information and schedules the predefined face
opening which has to be given to the control algorithm.
Beside the seam thickness the exploitation machine in
combination with the other workface components need a
defined minimal face opening to pass the other equipment
without damage. This has also to be taken into account by
setting the face opening parameter. Especially in seams
where the minimum cutting height of the shearer is almost
the same as the thickness of the seam, or bigger, it could be
necessary to cut into the floor boundary of the seam to reach
the needed headroom.
A cut into the roof boundary should be prevented to avoid
possibly resulting roof fall. Beside this safety aspect cutting
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into the roof perhaps leads to the loss of the command
variable of the SDHC. By injuring the roof strata by the
cutting drums the roof would no longer present the natural
trend of the seam. Therefore the avoidance of injuring the
roof can be identified as another control objective or
otherwise an intact roof can be declared as a requirement for
the SDHC.
Another requirement for the shield-data-based horizon
control and therefore it is always assumed that the coal
detaches itself from the ambient rock, if the cut is executed in
a small distance under the roof boundary. Thus, the shields
are directly connected to the original roof and so the roof
support gives the feedback for the control process which
indicates if the desired face opening is reached or not. Due to
the fact, that the roof support is the “detecting sensor”, the
controlled system contains a time delay. This delay occurs
from the fact, that the cut in front of the shield produce a face
opening which is reached by the roof support some steps
later.
4. MODE OF OPERATION
As mentioned above coal interface detection, horizon control
and thereby an automatic calculated target for the cutting
drum height are the main objectives of longwall automation.
Almost all of the above mentioned researches in longwall
mining automation are focused on the shearer or the roof
supports separately. The SDHC is a new control approach in
longwall coal mining which utilizes the roof supports as well
as the mining machine. Therefore the roof supports are used
as a source to carry data about the seam as in Junker et al.
(2009). These data are the input of the controller and are used
to calculate the new cutting adjustments for the exploitation
machine to reach the aim of automatic horizon control. The
basic structure of the SDHC control loop is shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Block diagram of the SDHC control loop
The SDHC requires several input data which have to be
stored, analyzed and prepared. Those data have to be
collected from different sources. Also for safety reasons the
SDHC has to be accessible for different operators and other
systems (e.g. for an emergency stop). Therefor the SDHC has
to be implemented in a superordinate control level of the
mine monitoring system. By implementing the SDHC in the
monitoring system all stored data could be used to provide all
necessary information. Also the computational performance
for analyzing and data preparation is not a limiting factor.
101
Another advantage is that no higher intelligence is required
on the exploitation machine and thus the SDHC is also
applicable for the thin seam mining utilizing the plow
technology as described in Beitler et al. (2013b).
First the information of the environmental conditions is
acquired. The important data are the inclination of the
equipment components which are, beside the desired value of
the face opening, the main input of the controller. The
measured data therefore are stored to a data base, and
provided to further analysis and preparation. For calculating
the seam trend, the inclination of the roof supports but also
the angles of the exploitation machine or the AFC as well as
the face advance are considered. Also the geometrical
relations of the workface equipment are required for a
working SDHC control loop.
The SDHC controller is the central component and its output
is the specification for the height adjustment of the cutting
drums of the shearer. Its inputs are an estimated exploitation
machine position, the parameter settings and the edited shield
data. Furthermore the SDHC controller could be supported by
information from a CID system or other seam information
(e.g. offline seam model), but like indicated by the dashed
blocks, these information are optional and not necessary for a
working SDHC. The position of the AFC and thus that one of
the exploitation machine is provided by the exploitation
machine positioning estimator (EMPE). The EMPE
calculates the position for the next run based on shield data,
previous position, cut work and geometrical relations. One
possible principle of a shearer positioning estimation is given
in Xu et al. (2010).
The SDHC itself is a cascade controller with n subordinate
controllers, which are getting their desired values from the
parameter setting input vector and the previous controller in
the cascade. The actual values are provided by shield data
and the data from EMPE. The number of subordinated
controllers differs regarding to the utilized exploitation
machine (plow or shearer). Each one of these n subordinated
controllers handles one determined intermediate value, takes
all relevant actual values into account and calculates a desired
value as an input for the following controller. In this manner,
one output is calculated successive from numerous input
values. The feedback is given in the next AFC advance by the
new shield and EMPE data.
5. SIMULATION AND TEST RESULTS
Under the rough mining conditions it is necessary to receive a
safe and productive system. To examine the developed
control algorithm several simulation tests were made.
Because of the numerous components of the system
additionally several experimental tests were accomplished in
cooperation with the German mining company RAG to
examine the controller in interaction with real mining
equipment. Therefore an AFC and a shearer were part of the
test assembly. The simulation model substituted the seam as
well as the roof support in these tests. To make the test
scenario as realistic as possible, the SDHC-controller was not
connected to the simulation model. Controller inputs were
provided by the monitoring system and the controller outputs
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were only given to the shearer and the monitoring system, not
to the simulation model. A more detailed description of the
test assembly and the communication structure is given in
Holm et al. (2013). Beside the controller functionality also
the communication between the different sub systems, the
correct data storage as well as possible safety critical aspects
were regarded. The tests were realized with several seam
scenarios. Some results with different conditions are shown
in the following. The black line at the ground shows the
resulting cut contour from the executed cut calculated by the
SDHC in each of the following diagrams. The grey dashed
lines indicate the original seam boundaries.
In Fig. 6 a straight seam is illustrated where the height of the
longwall workface at the beginning is less than the desired
height and a cut series with at least one undercut is needed to
reach the desired face opening.
2
height (m)
1
0
5 10 15 20 25 30
face advance (m)
Fig. 6. Experimental control result for a seam condition
where the height is less than the desired face opening
The controlled system in Fig. 6 reaches the desired face
opening after about 5 m face advance, so after five cuts by
assuming a face advance of 1 m per cut. In comparison to the
non controlled system behavior shown in Fig. 3 the
controlled system reaches a stable state with a small
overshoot in the transient effect. In this experimental test the
controlled system reaches and keeps the desired face opening.
2
height (m)
0
-1
5 10 15 20
face advance (m)
Fig. 7. Experimental control result for a ramp tending
downwards
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 illustrate ramp scenarios, one tending
upwards and one tending downwards respectively. The
comparison of these two figures shows the condition
dependent system behavior even of the controlled system.
While the longwall workface follows the seam trend
immediately for the downward tending seam in Fig. 7, the
controlled longwall workface shows an obvious time delay
for the upwards tending ramp in Fig. 8. For the upward
tending ramp the system reaction is only visible 5 m after the
seam trend changes. At this point the approximation to the
desired value of the face opening starts.
3
2
height (m)
1
0
5 10 15 20
face advance (m)
Fig. 8. Experimental control result for a ramp tending
upwards
A similar behavior can also be seen in Fig. 9 for an anticline
seam situation. While the time delay is visible during the
35 ascending part of the seam, in the falling region there is no
delay. This is probably caused by the inertia of the roof
support which reaction time seems to be longer if the contact
to the host rock is lost in front of the shield while a falling
seam provokes a contact and a guidance of the roof support
which gives the feedback in the control loop. Nevertheless
the principle function of the control algorithm is given and a
desired behavior can be effected.
3
2
height (m)
1
0
5 10 15 20 25
face advance (m)
Fig. 9. Experimental result for an anticline seam situation
25 There was a fixed distance between the upper and the lower
cutting drum of the shearer a bit smaller than the desired face
opening for all shown test scenarios. So the upper cutting
drum is led in a small distance to the roof layer. In all these
tests the upper cutting drum did not cross the roof boundary;
in this regard one control aim is reached. The tests were also
focused on the generation of a defined face opening and the
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stabilization of the controlled system. Also the response of
the controlled system to changing seam trends for different
situations is tested. The attained outcomes of the tests show
that all mentioned control objectives are satisfied.
6. CONCLUSION
A longwall coal mining workface is a complex system.
Fundamental analyses based on a simulation model make the
system behavior of a longwall workface visible. Therefor the
cut contour and the seam trend are considered. Regarding the
simulation results for the non-controlled system it is obvious
that the system does not reach a stable rest position without a
recurring override by an operator or another control concept.
Therefore the SDHC is introduced as an approach for
longwall coal mining horizon control. The control objectives
are the generation of a desired face opening as well as the
tracking of the seam trend. Thus the SDHC approach
integrates the roof support for data acquisition but did not
need the memory cut as almost all other horizon control
methods. The schematic of the SDHC control algorithm and
test results for different conditions are shown. The
experiments have shown promising results referring to the
control aims. The defined face opening is generated and kept,
the controlled system follows changing seam trends and the
system behavior is stabilized. The next steps in the
development of an autonomous horizon control by using
SDHC is the application in an underground mine. Future
work can be focused on the combination with other
automation algorithms e.g. for coal interface detection.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors thank the employees of the Otto von Guericke
University of Magdeburg, Mr. C. Daniel and Mr. E. Woschke
for implementing the workface behavior and constructing the
simulation model.
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