Improving the Shearer Positioning Accuracy Using the Shearer Motion Constraints in Longwall Panels

The shearer positioning method with an inertial navigation system (INS) is feasible in a longwall mining face. However, INS error greatly increases with time, which reduces the shearer positioning accuracy. This study aims to improve the shearer positioning accuracy using the shearer motion constraints. Firstly, according to the longwall mining method, two constraints on the shearer velocity and position were obtained. Then, velocity constraint information and position constraint information were modeled to obtain the observation equations in the filter. In order to improve the shearer positioning accuracy, an information filter was utilized to integrate the velocity constraint information and position constraint information. Finally, an experiment was performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The result showed that the shearer positioning accuracy improved by 56% in the east and 54% in the north.