MAPS goes underground

The Honeywell Ore Recovery/Tunneling Aid (HORTA) is a precision inertial positioning and pointing system for use on mining equipment. The HORTA is based on the Honeywell Modular Azimuth Positioning System (MAPS) that is used in military applications. The HORTA is a completely autonomous self-contained Dynamic Reference Unit (DRU) inertial navigator mechanized using strapdown inertial algorithms, three ring laser gyroscopes (RLGs) for angular motion sensing, three Q-Flex accelerometers for translation measurements and special software for mining applications. The HORTA is used to determine the position of a continuous miner (CM) from remote controlled equipment. This allows the mining industry the ability to keep the workers at safe distances during the mining process and to have an accurate, reliable navigation system providing heading and location of the ore extraction equipment.