With the support of information technology represented by 5g, smart mines have moved from concept to implementation, providing strong support for China's mining industry to gradually realize unmanned operation with fewer people.
The 2022 World 5g conference is about to be held in Harbin. Ge Shirong, academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering and President of China University of mining and Technology (Beijing), replied in writing to the interview of the science and technology daily, and said that more and more scientific research institutes, high-tech companies and industrial enterprises are expected to participate in the construction of the 5g ecosystem in smart mines, so as to further enrich the application of 5g in smart mines.
Science and Technology Daily: the safe and unmanned operation of mining industry is regarded as the most suitable link for 5g and other emerging technologies. However, the mining environment has strict requirements on equipment and operation. How to solve this problem better and faster with 5g and other ICT technologies?
Ge Shirong: Mine unmanned operation is a systematic project and the development goal of mine intelligence. However, the mine operation environment is very bad, and the requirements for equipment are also extremely strict. Intelligent mining still has many problems to be solved, such as insufficient perceptual ability, insufficient equipment reliability, insufficient terminal computing speed, insufficient information interoperability, and poor human-machine interaction.
The mine intellectualization should make use of 5g, industrial Internet, artificial intelligence, big data, digital twin and other new generation ICT technologies to better realize the functions of data ubiquitous high-speed access, equipment real-time control, image and video intelligent analysis, disaster monitoring and early warning, mechanical and electrical equipment fault diagnosis, and finally build a transparent system for the whole process of mine production, transportation, sales and storage. As the core supporting technology of mine intellectualization, the new generation ICT technology must be driven by scientific and technological innovation, promote the deep integration and industrial landing of ICT technology and mining industry, realize the safe and unmanned operation of mines, and finally promote the high-quality development of mining industry.
ScienceDaily: at present, what is the level of production process intelligence of China's well-known coal mining enterprises? What role has 5g played or will 5g play?
Ge Shirong: as of April 2022, nearly 400 coal mines in China have carried out intelligent construction, and 813 intelligent mining faces have been built, including 477 mining faces and 336 driving faces. Intelligent technology has made important contributions to reducing the number of people and increasing the safety and efficiency of coal mines. Based on 5g communication and edge computing technology, the current primary intelligent coal mining face has realized intelligent applications such as panoramic high-definition video monitoring of the working face, state identification of hydraulic support based on video AI analysis and identification of "three violations" of personnel, and has reached the intelligent construction goal of "one key start and stop, unmanned operation, manned patrol and remote intervention".
In terms of open-pit mine unmanned driving, national energy group, together with China University of mining and Technology (Beijing), aerospace heavy industry, Automation Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences and other major domestic research institutes and enterprises in the field of open-pit mine unmanned driving, will jointly develop open-pit mine robotic autonomous transportation and loading system, which will continue to make breakthroughs in open-pit mine unmanned driving, loading and unloading coordination, group scheduling and safety assurance technology, Promote the deeper and wider application of unmanned driving technology in open-pit mines.
At present, the coal mine industry is widely carrying out the engineering application of "5g underground". Dozens of coal mines such as Shendong Shangwan Coal Mine, Shanxi Xinyuan coal mine, Shaanxi xiaobaodang coal mine and caojiatan coal mine have taken the lead in building 5g based mine mobile communication private networks. Dozens of Mines belonging to large coal mining enterprises such as national energy group and China Coal Group are also carrying out 5g network construction. The coal mine industrial Internet based on 5g network is the neural network of the coal mine intelligent system, which will make the data access more convenient, the data transmission faster, the decision-making control more timely and reliable, and effectively promote the overall improvement of the coal mine intelligent level.
Science and Technology Daily: you once proposed "building a new intelligent platform with digital twins" to simulate actual coal mining. What are the obstacles to such platform construction? Which links will use 5g / 6G technology?
Ge Shirong: Digital twin is an industrial digital technology that has developed rapidly in recent years. In 2020, we took the lead in putting forward the concept of digital twin in coal mines, systematically expounded the connotation of digital twin, and proposed 10 key technologies of digital twin intelligent mining face integrating 5g communication technology, Internet of things technology and bionic intelligent technology.
At present, the digital twin system of coal mine still stays at the level of top-level planning and system architecture design, and there are still many theoretical and technical problems to be solved, such as the fine geological model of coal mine and the multi physical field simulation engine. 5g / 6G technology will also play a role in the digital twin system of coal mines. For example, in terms of the virtual and real interaction between the twin and the physical system, the digital twin system will generate a large amount of bidirectional interactive data, which has high requirements on the bandwidth and delay of data transmission. This is the advantage of 5g / 6G communication technology.
Science and Technology Daily: what is the biggest problem of green coal mining in China? To what extent can robots play a role?
Ge Shirong: an important problem in China's green coal mining is how to achieve low loss and low carbonization in coal mining. On the one hand, it is necessary to popularize and apply technologies such as low loss mining, land reclamation and ecological management in mining areas. On the other hand, it is necessary to reduce carbon emissions during coal development and utilization, promote carbon dioxide capture and storage technology, and strictly control methane emissions during mining.
The coal mine robot is the main carrier to realize the intellectualization of the coal mine. It mainly plays a role in reducing the number of people, increasing safety and improving efficiency. In recent years, great progress has been made in the research, development and application of coal mining robots. The crowd of coal mining and tunnelling machines has become the main equipment of intelligent coal mining and intelligent tunnelling faces. Coal mine robots such as patrol inspection, safety control, transportation and auxiliary operations have also been widely used. In the future, more and more critical work posts will be replaced by robots.
