Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eng

Research
Green Industrial Processes—Review

Intelligent Mining Technology for an Underground Metal Mine Based on

Unmanned Equipment
Jian-guo Li ⇑, Kai Zhan
BGRIMM Technology Group, Beijing 100160, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This article analyzes the current research status and development trend of intelligent technologies for
Received 13 December 2017 underground metal mines in China, where such technologies are under development for use to develop
Revised 10 March 2018 mineral resources in a safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly manner. We analyze and summarize
Accepted 17 May 2018
the research status of underground metal mining technology at home and abroad, including some specific
Available online 19 May 2018
examples of equipment, technology, and applications. We introduce the latest equipment and technolo-
gies with independent intellectual property rights for unmanned mining, including intelligent and
Keywords:
unmanned control technologies for rock-drilling jumbos, down-the-hole (DTH) drills, underground
Underground
Autonomous
scrapers, underground mining trucks, and underground charging vehicles. Three basic platforms are used
Communication for intelligent and unmanned mining: the positioning and navigation platform, information-acquisition
Navigation and communication platform, and scheduling and control platform. Unmanned equipment was tested
Intelligent in the Fankou Lead-Zinc Mine in China, and industrial tests on the basic platforms of intelligent and
unmanned mining were carried out in the mine. The experiment focused on the intelligent scraper, which
can achieve autonomous intelligent driving by relying on a wireless communication system, location and
navigation system, and data-acquisition system. These industrial experiments indicate that the technol-
ogy is feasible. The results show that unmanned mining can promote mining technology in China to an
intelligent level and can enhance the core competitive ability of China’s mining industry.
Ó 2018 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and
Higher Education Press Limited Company. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction countries made plans for intelligent and unmanned mining. At

the Stobie Mine, an underground mine belonging to the Interna-
With the world’s rapid economic development, the demand for tional Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd. and a typical example of
mineral resources is increasing. It has been forecast that the depth such an automated mine, mobile devices such as scrapers, rock
of more than 33% of the metal mines in China will reach or exceed drills, and underground mining trucks are operated remotely and
1000 m within the next decade. Deep underground mining will workers can operate the equipment directly from the central con-
become the trend of metal mining in China [1]. To overcome the trol room on the surface [4]. According to the Canadian govern-
disadvantages of traditional mining methods, such as excessive ment’s 2050 long-range plan, Canada intends to transform one of
resource consumption, poor operating environments, low produc- its underground mines in the northern part of the country into
tion efficiency, high safety risks, high production costs, and severe an unmanned mine. The plan states that all devices will be con-
pollution, it is essential to develop an intelligent mining technol- trolled from Sudbury via satellite in order to achieve intelligent
ogy for underground metal mines that provides complete safety, and unmanned mining. Another intelligent mining program cover-
environmental protection, and efficiency [2,3]. Some developed ing 28 topics—including the real-time process control of mining,
countries have done a great deal of work in the field of intelligent real-time management of resources, construction of a mine infor-
mining for underground metal mines over many years, and thus mation network, and application of new technology and automatic
have considerable experience in this field. At the beginning of control—was carried out in Finland. Sweden has developed the
the 21st century, Canada, Finland, Sweden, and other developed Grountecknik 2000 strategic plan for mine automation [5–7], and
veteran mining equipment companies such as Atlas Copco are
⇑ Corresponding author. actively developing a series of unmanned underground mining
E-mail address: li_jg@bgrimm.com (J.-g. Li). equipment and related control systems that can be used to

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2018.05.013
2095-8099/Ó 2018 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press Limited Company.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
382 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391

implement the strategic plan. One of the most famous institutes in in the gradual upgrading of intelligent processes in mining equip-
unmanned vehicles, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial ment; unmanned and centralized mining equipment have now
Research Organization of Australia, is making great efforts to entered the stage of practical application, which will significantly
achieve the intelligent mining of underground mines, with a par- advance the automation and information technology used in min-
ticular focus on the unmanned control of various types of equip- ing [10].
ment [8]. Integrated communication, sensors, artificial intelligence, vir-
Although these developed countries have already invested a tual reality, information technologies, computer technologies,
considerable amount of time and money into the study of intelli- and unmanned control equipment were combined in order to
gent mining, only a few related studies have been carried out in achieve intelligent mining technologies, as shown in Fig. 2. Such
China, especially in the field of intelligent equipment and plat- technologies are based on precise, reliable, and accurate decision-
forms. In order to rapidly advance its intelligent mining capabili- making and production process management through real-time
ties, China is supporting many intelligent mining projects, monitoring; they allow mine production to be maintained at the
including the Key Technology and Software Development for Dig- optimum level, and lead to improved mining efficiency and eco-
ital Mining project and the High-Precision Positioning for Under- nomic benefits. In this way, green, safe, and efficient mining can
ground Unmanned Mining Equipment and Intelligent Unmanned be achieved.
Scraper Model Research project. In particular, a project titled Intel- Taking a typical trackless mining technology as an example,
ligent Mining Technology for Underground Metal Mines was estab- intelligent mining technology can be divided into three layers—
lished during the 12th Five-Year Plan, in order to promote the control layer, transport layer, and executive layer [11].
intelligent mining technology to a certain extent. This article intro- As shown in Fig. 3, the executive layer mainly consists of track-
duces several research achievements and their applications in this less mining equipment such as rock-drilling jumbos, DTH drills,
project. Trackless mining equipment such as rock-drilling jumbos, underground scrapers, underground mining trucks, or under-
down-the-hole (DTH) drills, underground scrapers, underground ground charging vehicles. The transport layer mainly includes a
mining trucks, and underground charging vehicles have been ubiquitous information-acquisition system, wireless communica-
developed using intelligent technologies. Suitable communication tion system, and precise positioning and intelligent navigation
techniques, sensors, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, informa-
tion technology, and computer technology for mining equipment
and platforms have been implemented. The experimental results
indicate that some of the system’s functionalities are innovative
and show good performance.

2. Intelligent mining

Mining is one of the oldest industries in the world. Mining pro-

duction techniques have passed through a rapid change from arti-
ficial production, mechanized production, and on-site remote-
control production, to intelligent and fully automated production.
In order to move the mining industry forward, mechanization tools
have been developed, single-equipment and independent systems
have been automated, and the entire mining production process
has been highly automated [9]. By integrating information technol-
ogy with the industrialization of mining technology, intelligent
mining technology has been rapidly developed, based on mecha-
nized and automated mining, as shown in Fig. 1. This has resulted Fig. 1. A comparison of production efficiency and mining technology development.

Fig. 2. The fundamentals of intelligent mining.

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Fig. 3. A diagram of intelligent mining technology.

system. The control layer is designed as a system-level platform,

and is responsible for intelligent mining process scheduling and
control. This is the core of the entire system, because all intelligent
mining-related functions and control ideas are implemented
through this platform. First, a reasonable mining plan is designed
by analyzing the reserves of mine resources and geological condi-
tions in combination with the underground production schedule.
Next, an intelligent scheduling and control platform is developed.
Control instructions for the equipment are sent through the trans-
port layer to a specific piece of equipment in order to perform a
mining task at a specific position and time. Within the executive
layer, the control layer collects current information on the tunnel
and basic information about the vehicle in real time; this informa-
tion can be used to determine the location of the equipment or
adjust it at any time until that entire stage of the mining plan is
successfully completed. Fig. 4. Remote control platform on the surface with on-site audio and video signals.

3. Unmanned equipment
including on-site audio and video signals, is well-integrated in
Intelligent trackless mining technology is based on intelligent order to increase the feeling of immersion while performing
unmanned equipment at the executive layer, such as rock- remote-control operations.
drilling jumbos, DTH drills, underground scrapers, underground Furthermore, the rock-drilling jumbo is autonomously con-
mining trucks, or underground charging vehicles. The functions trolled and operated in the tunnel under the guidance of a posi-
of intelligent and unmanned mining equipment differ according tioning and navigation system. By coordinating the positioning
to the different tasks each piece of equipment must carry out. system and altitude control system, the jumbo can achieve auton-
omous driving to the location from the dispatch layer. This is a
3.1. Intelligent rock-drilling jumbo major step toward achieving continuous operation without inter-
ference. Given the coordinates of the drilling-hole position in the
Rock drilling is the key process in mining, and plays a very three-dimensional (3D) digital map of the mine, the identification
important role in productivity, cost, and efficiency. Different geo- of the stope top and floor and the accurate positioning of the rock-
logical conditions require different mining methods, and different drilling system can be achieved independently. This provides a
methods require different types of rock drilling. A hydraulic rock- basis for unmanned operation. The intelligent control flow diagram
drilling jumbo is needed for medium-length hole drilling (i.e., is shown in Fig. 5.
depth of 20–30 m, diameter of 60–100 mm) [12]. An intelligent The rock-drilling parameters are independently adjusted
and unmanned rock-drilling jumbo has been designed to support according to the rock conditions. The intelligent rock-drilling
intelligent mining technology and efficiently complete drilling jumbo (shown in Fig. 6) is equipped with components for intelli-
work. gent blockage prevention, rock-characteristic acquisition, and fre-
Remote control and a virtual-reality display were the first basic quency matching; an automatic rod function; and a fully
technologies implemented in the unmanned hydraulic rock- automatic drill-pipe bank. The hole-blasting parameters are speci-
drilling jumbo. Fig. 4 shows the initial unmanned control platform fied independently, according to the scheduling system that is
for the jumbo on the surface. The virtual prototype display system, used, in order to ensure continuous drilling.
384 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391

Fig. 5. Intelligent control flow diagram of hydraulic drilling.

drilling (i.e., depth greater than 30 m, diameter of /100–150

mm). The disadvantages of the DTH drill are its lack of safety,
low ease-of-operation design considerations, insufficient matching
of structure and parameters, oil leakage, and seepage. The existing
DTH drill has low automation and is inefficient [13]. Therefore, an
intelligent unmanned DTH drill was designed to support the intel-
ligent mining technology.
The first features that were implemented in the new DTH drill
were intelligent autonomous driving and a hole-positioning func-
tion. Like an intelligent rock-drilling jumbo, an intelligent DTH
drilling machine should be capable of drilling holes in a predeter-
mined position according to the requirements of the mining
Fig. 6. Intelligent rock-drilling jumbo. design. An autonomous driving function is needed for when the
equipment is in drilling operation. The structure of a four-wheel
independent steering system is shown in Fig. 7; this system was
3.2. Intelligent DTH drill developed and applied to the new DTH drilling machine in order
to ensure free turning in a narrow space.
A DTH drill is needed when the rock-drilling jumbo cannot be Another feature to be applied was the automatic matching of
used, such as in an ultrahigh section with large-bore deep-hole the rock-drilling parameters with intelligent control technology.

Fig. 7. The structure of a four-wheel independent steering system. (a) Straight driving; (b) front-wheel steering; (c) oblique driving; (d) point-turn motion; (e) four-wheel
steering. d: the angle of the four wheels; d1 and d2: the angles of the forward wheels; d3 and d4: the angles of the backward wheels.
 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391 385

Fig. 8. Anti-deviation control flow diagram of the drilling rod.

The effect of the working parameters on drilling efficiency was rod can be established in order to avoid blocking of the rod during
analyzed by evaluating drilling parameters such as axial thrust, the automatic sorting process.
rotary speed, rotary torque, impact pressure, impact frequency,
and rock-drilling pressure. A theoretical calculation model or
empirical formula was deduced for each parameter selection, and 3.3. Intelligent underground scraper
the key parameters affecting drilling efficiency were determined.
The optimal drilling parameters for the matching method were Since the first successful testing of the ST-5 scraper by Wagner
selected, including air pressure, gas volume, and propulsion force. in the 1960s, scrapers have been widely used in underground min-
The drilling efficiency was then optimized by intelligent control of ing because of their high efficiency, flexibility, maneuverability,
the operation parameters. and low cost. With the rapid development of electronic and infor-
The third feature was anti-deviation control technology, as mation technology, intelligent control technologies for the under-
shown in Fig. 8. Blasting can be directly affected by many factors, ground scraper have been rapidly developed. The operation of
such as the positioning accuracy of the drill point, depth of the the underground scraper has gradually changed from manual to
hole, and declination of the hole. An intelligent DTH drill should remote control. At present, it is known as the fourth-generation
control the drill pipe in real time in order to avoid large errors that autonomous scraper [15–18].
will affect the subsequent blasting [14]. The main task of a scraper is the repeated transportation of ore
The final features were multiple drill-pipe storage, automatic between the loading point and the dumping point. Therefore, the
sorting, and anti-blocking resistance rod technology. Fig. 9 shows first task of an intelligent scraper is to achieve unmanned driving
the operation of an intelligent DTH drilling machine. The charac- during ore transportation. Recognition of the tunnel environment
teristics of the DTH drill determine that if the hole is 60 m deep, is achieved by a body-loading sensor, and a positioning and naviga-
then at least 40 drill pipes are needed every time. Therefore, mul- tion system is used to assist in the operation of the scraper. Fig. 10
tiple drill-pipe storage and automatic sequencing feed-rod tech- shows the driving algorithm of an unmanned scraper.
nologies were designed in order to improve the operational Another typical task of a scraper is shoveling ore, which may
efficiency of the equipment. By analyzing the mechanism of the include automatic weighing. The main purpose of automatic
drill rod, the parameters of the control function of the DTH drill weighing is to obtain real-time data and automatic statistics for
the ore. Automatic weighing technology can obtain statistics for
the class report, daily report, and monthly report, and can transfer
this data to the central control room through the communication
network. It can also enable managers to grasp the status of under-
ground production in real time.
An intelligent underground scraper can automatically drive to a
preset fixed point in order to dump ore, by relying on the position-
ing system, navigation system, and wireless communication sys-
tem after the dispatch instruction has provided a specific
dumping point. This is the basis for continuous unmanned mining
with scrapers. An intelligent underground scraper does not operate
within the view of its operator, and failure information cannot be
observed in real time; therefore, it must be able to perform in an
intelligent manner using the fault-diagnosis function [19,20]. The
vehicle should be able to follow remote-control instructions from
the surface such that the scraper can be controlled at any time.
Fig. 11 shows the intelligent underground scraper and its
Fig. 9. Operation of the intelligent DTH drilling machine. remote-control platform.
386 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391

Fig. 10. The driving algorithm of an unmanned scraper.

A vehicle-control system combines the environmental informa-

tion that is collected by various types of sensors. A machine-
learning algorithm uses the vehicle state acquired by the articu-
lated angle sensor to calculate the target output and control the
actuator movement. Fig. 13 shows the distribution of sensors for
unmanned driving. The system does not need the absolute coordi-
nates of the vehicle; an unmanned driving function can still be
achieved [21].
The first double-power transmission mining truck for use in an
underground mine was designed in China for a full load of 35 t, a
speed of 25 km
h 1, and a maximum climbing slope of 21.8%, as
shown in Fig. 14. In addition to its unmanned driving function,
the truck is capable of vehicle lane-space detection and intelligent
auxiliary driving; it also has a remote-control function. The fully
loaded autonomous operation speed is higher than 10 km
h 1.

3.5. Intelligent underground charging vehicle

Fig. 11. An intelligent underground scraper and its remote-control platform on the In underground mining, the four main processes are drilling,
surface. blasting, loading, and transportation. As a charging vehicle is
essential for blasting, it is very important to develop automation
operation for a charging vehicle. An underground charging vehicle
is an integrated mechanical and electrical product that performs
3.4. Intelligent underground mining truck raw-material transportation, explosive mixing, and gun-hole load-
ing. It has the characteristics of a compact structure, a high degree
An underground mining truck is the main transport vehicle for of automation, and a wide application range.
underground trackless mining, and has the advantages of mobility, An intelligent charging vehicle system is shown in Fig. 15. The
flexibility, high efficiency, and economy. Mining trucks have been pipe-reeling speed, pipe-feeding speed, and charging speed can
widely used to transport ore in underground mines. Use of an be digitally controlled, and the reeling and feeding speeds are auto-
underground mining truck can significantly improve the produc- matically matched with the charging speed and hole diameter. A
tion capacity and labor productivity, increase the production scale, fully coupled charge is achieved in order to improve the blasting
and improve the mining technology and transportation system. To effect. The safety protection system performs online monitoring
conserve energy and protect the environment, a double-power and fault diagnosis of the charging system. Remote fault diagnosis,
transmission underground mining truck can obtain electric energy remote scheduling, remote management, and the upload and
using a diesel engine driving generator. It can also obtain electric delivery of production tasks and data can be easily achieved using
energy from the frame system through a bow collector. The vehicle an intelligent scheduling system on the surface.
has two braking systems—electric and mechanical—as shown in A charging vehicle uses wireless and intelligent control technol-
Fig. 12, which help to improve the degree of green mining and ogy to achieve remote control and intelligent hole searching. The
environmental protection. start and stop of a charging system, key process parameters,
 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391 387

Fig. 12. A system block diagram of the double-power transmission underground mining truck.

A wireless remote-control technology is used for the vehicle,

and remote control and complete unmanned driving can be
achieved using a positioning and navigation system and a wireless
communication system. Coordinates can be accepted from a
scheduling system, and the vehicle can then autonomously drive
to the designated location point of the hole and complete the
charge. Fig. 16 shows the operation of a charging vehicle in a
tunnel.

4. Basic system platforms

4.1. Positioning and navigation platform

The positioning and navigation platform consists of a precise

positioning system and an intelligent navigation system. The
precise positioning system can provide position and altitude
information to the underground mining vehicle. The intelligent
Fig. 13. Distribution of the sensors for unmanned driving.
navigation system consists of two key modules for path planning
and path tracking. The path-planning module helps to find the
navigation path of the mine vehicle according to the dispatch
instructions, and the path-tracking module helps to automatically
move the mine vehicle to the target position along the planning
path.
Taking a point and line as the basic geometric representation, a
two-dimensional (2D) navigation map was built, and accurate
drawing of the underground map and detailed incorporation of
the navigation information were achieved. This provides a basic
map platform for the precise positioning and intelligent navigation
of the mining equipment. Real-time high-precision positioning
information was obtained by combining laser-positioning data
with ultra-wide-band (UWB) auxiliary positioning data, as shown
in Fig. 17. The positioning system consists of a high-precision
Fig. 14. An intelligent underground mining truck.
laser-positioning base station system, a vehicle machine vision
system, and UWB wireless positioning technology. The positioning
temperature, pressure, and flow are displayed on the remote con- accuracy can reach up to 100 mm. A reasonable and smooth plan-
trol. The automatic feeding and reeling system, automatic delivery, ning path can be searched for on the electronic map using the
charging of hole depth, and single-hole charging during the deliv- path-planning module, based on the breadth of the first search,
ery of pipeline are designed to support intelligent charging [22]. the dichotomy, and the symmetric polynomial curve-smoothing
388 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391

Fig. 15. Design of an intelligent charging vehicle system.

4.2. Information-acquisition and communication platform

The main function of the information-acquisition and commu-

nication platform is to obtain intelligent mining data. The under-
ground intelligent equipment, scheduling and control system,
information-acquisition system, and data communication system
work together using the same communication protocol within
the framework of intelligent mining technology, as shown in
Fig. 18. Thus, the extendibility, reusability, and standardization of
intelligent mining technology have been achieved. Independent
underground functions, geographically dispersed sensors, trackless
Fig. 16. An intelligent underground charging vehicle. equipment, production equipment, and local control systems were
combined to form the basis of intelligent mining technology for an
underground metal mine.
The basic functions are provided by a ubiquitous underground
information-acquisition and control device. The real-time high-
precision acquisition and rapid reliable transmission of analog, dig-
ital frequency, and video and audio frequency are achieved using a
high-frequency embedded processor and distributed architecture,
as shown in Fig. 18. The architecture can be configured with vari-
ous pieces of underground equipment, a digital mine system, a
mining production system, and an environmental monitoring sys-
tem, and information can be uploaded efficiently. A non-
differential data-transmission channel is established between the
equipment and the communication system using CAN, RS485,
Ethernet, and other data-transmission methods. A multilevel com-
posite network architecture based on distributed technology per-
mits the achievement of seamless roaming and redundant
Fig. 17. Positioning information obtained by the laser system and UWB system.
transmission technologies between the base stations during the
xworld-yworld-zworld is the world coordinate system; xbase-ybase-zbase is the local
coordinate system; h is the pitching angle and u is the roll angle; r is the distance movement of the underground vehicle. The underground wireless
between the laser and the equipment; and (hbase, ubase, rbase) is the location of the network has no blind area coverage, and has a high transmission
equipment in the xbase-ybase-zbase coordinate system. rate and very reliable communication. This network provides a
fast, efficient, and reliable data-supporting platform for the remote
operation of mining equipment [25].
method. Hybrid architecture and a real-time reflection control Fast mobile switching of underground wireless communication
system were used to achieve accurate tracking of the planning path terminals is very important, as shown in Fig. 19. Multi-frequency
using the positioning information [23,24]. cross-networking was used to overcome the communication
 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391 389

Fig. 18. Architecture of an underground wireless communication system. AP: access point.

Fig. 19. Fast mobile switching of underground wireless communication terminals.

interruption problem for underground equipment in motion. The scheduling and control system also performs the functions
Seamless mobile handover of the operation process of intelligent of organizing and managing mine data, modeling and updating
equipment was achieved. The communication system overcame resources, identifying the mining environment, automatically pro-
the communication-rate bottleneck of traditional wireless devices ducing the mining plan, and intelligently dispatching the produc-
and achieved a wireless link rate of up to 600 Mbit
s 1 using tion process [26]. The platform can provide information on the
802.11n technology. The automatic identification, classification, 3D environment simulation, simulation of equipment condition,
and transmission of underground intelligent equipment business real-time status of equipment, intelligent scheduling of equipment,
data were fully supported. A stable network communication plat- device real-time video, and location. An integrated intelligent
form was thus provided for the remote control and autonomous scheduling and control platform for intelligent mining was built
operation of the equipment. using this system, as shown in Fig. 20.

4.3. Scheduling and control platform 5. Experiment

The intelligent scheduling and control system plays an impor- An intelligent mining system was built in the middle part of the
tant role in the performance of mining. An intelligent software Fankou Lead-Zinc Mine in China. Centralized control, high-speed
platform and management center are key features of an intelligent communication, autonomous driving, and the intelligent opera-
mining system. Based on the actual demand of underground metal tions of an underground scraper, a mining truck, a rock-drilling
mine production scheduling and process control, the intelligent jumbo, and a DTH drill were tested. The framework diagram is
dispatch of an underground metal mine based on a data warehouse shown in Fig. 21.
was achieved by implementing key technologies such as the orga- The industrial field-test results show that the integrated tech-
nization and management of multisource data, 3D visualization of nology of underground intelligent mining based on unmanned
resources and mining environment, dynamic simulation of produc- equipment is very useful. The intelligent dispatch and control
tion processes, and intelligent dispatch and control systems. system runs stably and can achieve the remote monitoring and
390 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391

Fig. 20. Diagram of the intelligent scheduling and control platform.

Fig. 21. A framework diagram of an intelligent mining system test in an underground metal mine.

synchronous 3D-operation display of the down-hole equipment. 6. Conclusions

The positioning and navigation system is capable of navigating
the underground environment and operating the equipment. The Intelligent mining technologies for underground metal mines
path planning is reasonable, and position tracking of the equip- are the concrete embodiment of China’s national policy of upgrad-
ment was achieved with 100 mm accuracy. The performance of ing traditional industries through modern and cutting-edge
the ubiquitous information-acquisition and communication sys- technologies. Intelligent mining technologies integrate the applica-
tem was excellent. tions of high-end technologies based on automation, information
The intelligent underground scraper had many operating modes technology, digital and artificial intelligence, and many other
including autonomous, remote, and manual driving, and carried new technologies, through multidisciplinary and multiple technol-
out the functions of fixed-point unloading and autonomous ogy integration. Intelligent mining not only improves the effective-
weighing. ness of mining equipment and the intelligent monitoring of mining
Autonomous driving and intelligent operation of the mining processes, but also significantly improves mining efficiency, thus
truck, charging vehicle, DTH drill, and rock-drilling jumbo were reducing the mining cost and improving the competitive ability
achieved. Thus, intelligent mining technology for an underground of mining enterprises. At the same time, intelligent mining can
mine based on unmanned equipment was verified. reduce the number of field operations and the risk of disasters. In
 J.-g. Li, K. Zhan / Engineering 4 (2018) 381–391 391

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