A Loose Integrated Positioning Method of Longwall Shearer Assisted by INS and Laser Scanner

The precise positioning of the shearer is the key to realizing unmanned longwall face. In order to improve the positioning accuracy of the longwall shearer, a laser scanner is added on the basis of the INS/ZUPT/NHC, to construct a loose integrated positioning system. First, the mathematical models of the ZUPT, NHC, and laser scanner are established, respectively. Then, a 21-dimensional Kalman filter model is designed to fuse multi-sensor data. Finally, two simulation scenarios based on straight and polygonal trajectories are designed to verify the performance of the proposed method. The simulation results show that the proposed method can not only improve the positioning accuracy of the longwall shearer, but also can estimate the mounting angles between the INS and laser scanner.