STATE OF THE ART IN UNDERGROUND COAL MINING AUTOMATION AND INTRODUCTION OF A NEW SHIELD-DATA-BASED HORIZON CONTROL APPROACH

BP. 2012. Statistical review of world energy 2012. Online available from: http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview (10. October 2012)

Höök, M. and K. Aleklett. 2010. A review on coal to liquid fuels and its coal consumption. International Journal of Energy Research. Vol. 34. 848-864.

Department of Trade and Industry. 1999. Technology Status Report: Coal Lique- faction. Department of Trade and Industry.

Energy Watch Group. 2007. Coal Resources and Future Production. Energy Watch Group. EWG-Paper No. 1/07.

Mohr, S. H. and G. M. Evans. 2009. Forecasting coal production until 2100. Fuel. Vol. 88. 2059-67.

Rutledge, D. 2011. Estimating long-term world coal production with logit and probit transforms. International Journal of Coal Geology. Vol. 85. 23-33.

Patzek, T. W. and G. D. Croft. 2010. A global coal production forecast with multi-Hubbert cycle analysis. Energy. Vol. 35. 3109-22.

Thielemann, T., S. Schmidt and J. P. Gerling. 2007. Lignite and hard coal: Ener- gy suppliers for world needs unti l the year 2100 - An outlook. International Journal of Coal Geology. Vol. 72. 1-14.

Shafiee, S. and E. Topal. 2009. When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished. Energy Policy. Vol. 37. 181-189.

BP. 2012. Excel workbook of historical statistical data from 1965 -2011. Online available from: http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview (10. October 2012)

Andruleit, H., H. G. Babies, J. Meßner, S. Rehder, M. Schauer and S. Schmidt. 2011. DERA Rohstoffinformationen, Kurzstudie: Reserven, Ressourcen und Verfügbarkeit von Energierohstoffen 2011. Deutsche Rohstoffagentur (DERA) in der Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR). (DERA R esource- information, short survey: reserves, resources and availability of energy resources, in German).

Nutter R. S. 2007. Underground coal mine communication and tracking status. Conference Record of the 2007 IEEE Industry Application Conference . New Orlens, September 2007. 2086-89.

Kwitowski A. J., A. L. Brautigam and W. D. Monaghan. 1993. Telecontrol of a continuous mining machine in thin coal seams. Conference Record of the 1993 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting. Toronto, October 1993. Vol. 3. 2463-69.

Konyukh V. 2007. Strategy of automation for underground mining. Proceedings of the IEEE International Forum on Strategic Technology . Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, O c- tober 2007. 615-618.

Schiffbauer W. H. 1996. Navigation and control of continuous mining systems for coal mining. Conference Record of the 1996 IEEE Industry Applications Confe r- ence. San Diego, October 1996. Vol. 4. 2473-79. Section Exploration and Mining

Reid D. C., J. C. Ralston, M. T. Dunn and C. O. Hargrave. 2011. A major step foreward in continuous miner automation. Proceedings of the 11th Underground Coal Operators’ Conference. Wollongong, February 2011. 165-171.

Shaffer G. and A. Stentz. 1992. A robotic system for underground coal mining. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automa tion. Nice, May 1992. Vol. 1. 633-638.

Sammarco J. J. 1996. A guidance Sensor for Continuous mine haulage. Confer- ence Record of the 1996 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. San Diego, October 1996. Vol. 4. 2465-72.

Wang Z. and Z. Xu. 2009. Research on the technology of Shearer self-adaptive memory cutting. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation. Changsha, Hunan, China, October 2009. 920-923.

Wang Z., W. Ni, S. Li and Z. Xu. 2009. Research on key technologies of remote monitoring platform for shearer. Proceedings of the IEEE International Con ference on Measurement Technology and Mechatronics Automation . Zhang jiajie, Hunan, China, April 2009. Vol. 1. 316-319.

Xu Z. and Z. Wang. 2010. Research on key technology of shearer position. Pro- ceedings of the IEEE International Conference of Intelligent System Design an Eng i- neering Application. Changsha, Hunan, China, October 2010. 280-283.

Schraft R. D. and S. Forster. 1990. First steps towards an autonomous mining robot for coal extraction. Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Intell i- gent Robots and Systems. Tsuchiura, Japan, July 1990. Vol. 1. 479-485.

Kelly M. S., P. Lever, D. W. Hainsworth, H. Gurgenci and R. Dubois. 2001. Longwall automation: Are we ready for success. Proceedings of the 3rd International Underground Coal Conference. Manly, Australia, June 2001.

Kelly M. S. and D. W. Hainsworth. 2004. The landmark longwall automation project. CSIRO, Exploration & Mining. Online available from: http://www.lascautomation.com/docs/2004LongwallNSW.pdf (15. O c- tober 2012)

Reid D. C., D. W. Hainsworth, J. C. Ralston, R. J. Mc Phee and C. O. Hargrave. 2003. Inertial navigation: Enabling technology for longwall mining automation. Pro- ceedings of the Fourth International Conference of Computer Applications in the Min- erals Industries. Calgary, September 2003.

Strange D. A. 2007. Robust thin layer coal thickness estimation using ground penetrating radar. Doctoral Thesis, School of Engineering Systems, Queensland Univer- sity of Technology.

Mowrey G. L. 1991. Horizon control holds key to automation (part 1). Coal Magazine. Vol. 96. 44-48.

Strange D. A., J. C. Ralston and V. Chandran. 2005. Near-surface interface d e- tection for coal mining applications using bispectral features and GPR. Subsurface Sens- ing Technologies and Applications. Vol. 6. 125-149. GeoConference on Science and Technologies in Geology, Exploration and Mining

Ralston J. C. and D. W. Hainsworth. 1999. Application of ground penetrating radar for coal depth measurement. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing. Phoenix, March 1999. Vol. 4. 2275-78.

Mowrey G. L. 1992. Horizon control holds key to automation (part 2). Coal Magazine. Vol. 97. 47-51.

Stolarczyk L. G., G. L. Stolarczyk and K. L. Perry. 1996. Horizon sensor for ad- vanced coal extraction (ACE). Proceedings of the National Mining Association MINEx- po International ’96. Las Vegas, September 1996.

Holman D., M. J. McPherson and I. M. Loomis. 1996. Underground thin-seam coal mining in Virginia. Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. July 1999. Report No. 99-01.

Mowrey G. L. 1988. A new approach to coal interface detection: The in-seam seismic technique. IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications. Vol. 24. 660-665.

Luo X., A. King and M. van de Werken. 2009. Tomographic imaging of rock conditions ahead of mining using the shearer as a seismic source – A feasibility Study. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Vol. 47. 3671-78.

Luo X., A. King and M. van de Werken. 2008. Sensing roof conditions ahead of longwall mining using the shearer as a seismic source. Proceedings of the IEEE Interna- tional Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Bosten, July 2008. Vol. 4. IV17- IV20.

Ren F., Z. Liu and Z. Yang. 2010. Dynamics analyses for cutting part of shearer physical simulation system. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on In- formation and Automation. Harbin, China, June 2010. 260-264.

Mowrey G. L. 1991. Promising coal interface detection methods. Mining Engi- neering. Vol. 43. 134-138.

Yang W. and S. Wang. 2010. Coal rock interface sensing technology applied for horizon control of mining shearers. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Electrical and Control Engineering. Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 2010. 587-590.

Sahoo R. and A. M. Mazid. 2009. Application of opto-tactile sensor in shearer machine design to recognize rock surface in underground coal mining. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology. Gippsland, Australia, February 2009. 1-6.

Mowrey G. L. 1995. An infrared-based coal interface detection system. Pro- ceedings of 3rd International Symposium on Mine Mechanization and Automation. Golden, Colorado, USA, June 1995. Vol. 1. 21-31.

Ralston J. C. and A. D. Strange. 2012. Thermal infrared-based seam tracking for intelligent longwall shearer horizon control. Proceedings of the 12th Underground Coal Operators’ Conference. Wollongong, February 2012. 78-85.

Reid P. B., M. T. Dunn, D. C. Reid and J. C. Ralston. 2010. Real-world autom a- tion: New capabilities for underground longwall mining. Proceedings of the Australa- sian Conference on Robotics and Automation. Brisbane, December 2010. Section Exploration and Mining

Kelly M., D. Hainsworth, P. Lever and H. Gurgenci. 2002. Longwall automation – an ACARP landmark project. Proceedings of the Council of Mining and Metallurgical Institutions Congress: International codes, technology and sustainability for the mine r- als industry. Cairns, Australia, May 2002. 159-165.

Peters L. Jr., J. J. Daniels and J. D. Young. 1994. Ground penetrating radar as a surface environmental sensing tool. Proceedings of the IEEE. Vol. 82.1802-1822.

Ralston J. C., D. W. Hainsworth and R. J. McPhee. 1997. Application of ground penetrating radar for coal thickness measurement. Proceedings of the IEEE Region 10 Annual Conference. TENCON ’97 – Speech and Image Technolo gies for Computing and Telecommunications. Brisbane, December 1997. Vol. 2. 835-838.

Ellenbruch D. A. and D. R. Belsher. 1978. Electromagnetic technique of measur- ing coal layer thickness. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience Electronics. Vol. GE -16. 126-133.

Bausov I. Y., G. L. Stolarczyk, L. G. Stolarczyk and S. Koppenjan. 2007. Look- ahead radar and horizon sensing for coal cutting drums. Proceedings of the 4th Interna- tional Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar. Naples, June 2007. 208-211.

Hargrave C. O., N. V. Shuley, J. C. Ralston and D. W. Hainsworth. 2007. Radar level sensor for longwall creep and retreat measurement. Conference Record of the 2007 IEEE Industry Applications Conference, 2007. 42nd IAS Annual Meeting. New Orleans, September 2007. 2102-09.

Nutter R. S. Jr. and M. D. Aldridge. 1988. Status of mine monitoring and co m- munications. IEEE Transactions on Industry Application. Vol. 24. 820-826.

Haibo S., D. Xiong, T. Chao and Y. Xingang. 2010. Key technologies of 3DVR digital information platform for shearer. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanic Automation and Control Engineering. Wuhan, China, June 2010. 224-227.

Xu Z. and Z. Wang. 2009. Research on the technology of shearer 3DVR remote monitoring based on multi-sensor fusion. Proceedings of the 1st International Confe r- ence on Information Science and Engineering. Nanjing, China, December 2009. 1411- 1413.

Liu Z., Q. Zeng, Q. Lu and L. Wang. 2010. A monitoring and controlling system based on distributed industrial ring Ethernet in coal mine. Proceedings of the IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and A p- plications. Qingdao, ShanDong, China, July 2010. 336-340.

Reid D. C., D. W. Hainsworth, J. C. Ralston, R. J. McPhee and P. G. Ingram- Johnson. 2003. Industrial Ethernet for control and information interconnectivity in au- tomated longwall mining. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Applications in the Minerals Industries. Calgary, September 2003.

Tao P. and X. Liu. 2011. Hybrid wireless communication system using ZigBee and WiFi technology in the coalmine tunnels. Proceedings of the 3rd International Con- ference on Measuring Technology and Mechatronics Automation. Shanghai, January 2011. Vol. 2. 340-343. GeoConference on Science and Technologies in Geology, Exploration and Mining

An J. and S. Ma. 2010. The applications of GPRS in the mine monitoring and control system. Proceedings of the International Conference on E-Product, E-Service and E-Entertainment. Henan, China, November 2010.

Zang Q., B. Wang, G. Cheng, Z. Wang, J. Wei and D. Yan. 2009. Object posi- tion tracking based on E - Map and RFID in coal mine. Proceedings of 4th IEEE Co n- ference on Industrial Electronics and Applications. Xi'an, China, May 2009. 880-885.

Liu Z., C. Li, Q. Ding and D. Wu. 2010. A Coal mine personnel global position- ing system on wireless sensor networks. Proceedings of the 8th World Congress on In- telligent Control and Automation. Jinan, China, July 2010. 7026-31.

Xue W., S. S. Zhong and L. Meng. 2012. Design of personnel positioning sy s- tem of mine based on the average of RSSI. Proceedings of the IEEE International Con- ference on Automation and Logistics. Zhengzhou, China, August 2012. 239-242.

Zhou L., G. Chen. 2010. Location strategy of shearer based on wireless sensor network. Proceedings of the International Conference on Apperceiving Computing and Intelligence Analysis. Chengdu, China, December 2010. 169-173.

Mingxin, L., W. Mingming, L. Mingfeng, P. Yanguo, F. Xiao, Y. Jinghu, C. Yang, W. Juguang, G. Zhaoqian and C. Hongxiang. 2010. Study on mining technology in intelligent workface of wannian colliery. Proceedings of the 2nd WRI Global Con- gress on Intelligent Systems. Wuhan, China, December 2010. Vol. 3. 271-274.

Mi, J., C. Tan, L. Zhang and D. Sun. 2010. Research on the memory cutting path of shearer based on genetic algorithm. Journal of Coal Science and Engineering Vol. 16. 333-336.

Su, X., W. L i, L. Zhang, Y. Wang, Q. Fan, C. Sun and L. Yu. 2010. Application of RBF hierarchical neural network in automatic horizon control system of memory- cutting shearer. Proceedings of the Chinese Control and Decision Conference . Xuzhou, China, May 2010. 2015-18.

Fan, Q., W. Li, Y. Wang, L. Zou, X. Su, X. Yang and G. Ye. 2010. Shearer memory cutting strategy research basing on GRNN. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Application and System Modeling . Taiyuan, China, October 2010. Vol. 1. V1-96 - V1-99.

Reid, D., P. Henderson, D. Hainsworth, B. Roberts, A. Chacko, C. McLeod and R. Mehl. 2005. Interconnection of Landmark Compliant Longwall Mining Equipment – Shearer communication and functional specification for enhanced horizon control. CSIRO Exploration and Mining Report P2004/6, Version 2.36. Online available from: http://www.lascautomation.com/docs/HorizonCon- rolSpecificationV2.36.pdf (15. O c- tober 2012)

Junker, M. and A. Mozar. 2011. Method for controlling longwall mining oper a- tions. United States Patent Application Publication. Pub. No.: US 2011/0049964 A1.

BP. 2012. Statistical review of world energy 2012. Online available from: http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview (10. October 2012)

Höök, M. and K. Aleklett. 2010. A review on coal to liquid fuels and its coal consumption. International Journal of Energy Research. Vol. 34. 848-864.

Department of Trade and Industry. 1999. Technology Status Report: Coal Lique- faction. Department of Trade and Industry.

Energy Watch Group. 2007. Coal Resources and Future Production. Energy Watch Group. EWG-Paper No. 1/07.

Mohr, S. H. and G. M. Evans. 2009. Forecasting coal production until 2100. Fuel. Vol. 88. 2059-67.

Rutledge, D. 2011. Estimating long-term world coal production with logit and probit transforms. International Journal of Coal Geology. Vol. 85. 23-33.

Patzek, T. W. and G. D. Croft. 2010. A global coal production forecast with multi-Hubbert cycle analysis. Energy. Vol. 35. 3109-22.

Thielemann, T., S. Schmidt and J. P. Gerling. 2007. Lignite and hard coal: Ener- gy suppliers for world needs unti l the year 2100 - An outlook. International Journal of Coal Geology. Vol. 72. 1-14.

Shafiee, S. and E. Topal. 2009. When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished. Energy Policy. Vol. 37. 181-189.

BP. 2012. Excel workbook of historical statistical data from 1965 -2011. Online available from: http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview (10. October 2012)

Andruleit, H., H. G. Babies, J. Meßner, S. Rehder, M. Schauer and S. Schmidt. 2011. DERA Rohstoffinformationen, Kurzstudie: Reserven, Ressourcen und Verfügbarkeit von Energierohstoffen 2011. Deutsche Rohstoffagentur (DERA) in der Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR). (DERA R esource- information, short survey: reserves, resources and availability of energy resources, in German).

Nutter R. S. 2007. Underground coal mine communication and tracking status. Conference Record of the 2007 IEEE Industry Application Conference . New Orlens, September 2007. 2086-89.

Kwitowski A. J., A. L. Brautigam and W. D. Monaghan. 1993. Telecontrol of a continuous mining machine in thin coal seams. Conference Record of the 1993 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting. Toronto, October 1993. Vol. 3. 2463-69.

Konyukh V. 2007. Strategy of automation for underground mining. Proceedings of the IEEE International Forum on Strategic Technology . Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, O c- tober 2007. 615-618.

Schiffbauer W. H. 1996. Navigation and control of continuous mining systems for coal mining. Conference Record of the 1996 IEEE Industry Applications Confe r- ence. San Diego, October 1996. Vol. 4. 2473-79. Section Exploration and Mining

Reid D. C., J. C. Ralston, M. T. Dunn and C. O. Hargrave. 2011. A major step foreward in continuous miner automation. Proceedings of the 11th Underground Coal Operators’ Conference. Wollongong, February 2011. 165-171.

Shaffer G. and A. Stentz. 1992. A robotic system for underground coal mining. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automa tion. Nice, May 1992. Vol. 1. 633-638.

Sammarco J. J. 1996. A guidance Sensor for Continuous mine haulage. Confer- ence Record of the 1996 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. San Diego, October 1996. Vol. 4. 2465-72.

Wang Z. and Z. Xu. 2009. Research on the technology of Shearer self-adaptive memory cutting. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation. Changsha, Hunan, China, October 2009. 920-923.

Wang Z., W. Ni, S. Li and Z. Xu. 2009. Research on key technologies of remote monitoring platform for shearer. Proceedings of the IEEE International Con ference on Measurement Technology and Mechatronics Automation . Zhang jiajie, Hunan, China, April 2009. Vol. 1. 316-319.

Xu Z. and Z. Wang. 2010. Research on key technology of shearer position. Pro- ceedings of the IEEE International Conference of Intelligent System Design an Eng i- neering Application. Changsha, Hunan, China, October 2010. 280-283.

Schraft R. D. and S. Forster. 1990. First steps towards an autonomous mining robot for coal extraction. Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Intell i- gent Robots and Systems. Tsuchiura, Japan, July 1990. Vol. 1. 479-485.

Kelly M. S., P. Lever, D. W. Hainsworth, H. Gurgenci and R. Dubois. 2001. Longwall automation: Are we ready for success. Proceedings of the 3rd International Underground Coal Conference. Manly, Australia, June 2001.

Kelly M. S. and D. W. Hainsworth. 2004. The landmark longwall automation project. CSIRO, Exploration & Mining. Online available from: http://www.lascautomation.com/docs/2004LongwallNSW.pdf (15. O c- tober 2012)

Reid D. C., D. W. Hainsworth, J. C. Ralston, R. J. Mc Phee and C. O. Hargrave. 2003. Inertial navigation: Enabling technology for longwall mining automation. Pro- ceedings of the Fourth International Conference of Computer Applications in the Min- erals Industries. Calgary, September 2003.

Strange D. A. 2007. Robust thin layer coal thickness estimation using ground penetrating radar. Doctoral Thesis, School of Engineering Systems, Queensland Univer- sity of Technology.

Mowrey G. L. 1991. Horizon control holds key to automation (part 1). Coal Magazine. Vol. 96. 44-48.

Strange D. A., J. C. Ralston and V. Chandran. 2005. Near-surface interface d e- tection for coal mining applications using bispectral features and GPR. Subsurface Sens- ing Technologies and Applications. Vol. 6. 125-149. GeoConference on Science and Technologies in Geology, Exploration and Mining

Ralston J. C. and D. W. Hainsworth. 1999. Application of ground penetrating radar for coal depth measurement. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing. Phoenix, March 1999. Vol. 4. 2275-78.

Mowrey G. L. 1992. Horizon control holds key to automation (part 2). Coal Magazine. Vol. 97. 47-51.

Stolarczyk L. G., G. L. Stolarczyk and K. L. Perry. 1996. Horizon sensor for ad- vanced coal extraction (ACE). Proceedings of the National Mining Association MINEx- po International ’96. Las Vegas, September 1996.

Holman D., M. J. McPherson and I. M. Loomis. 1996. Underground thin-seam coal mining in Virginia. Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. July 1999. Report No. 99-01.

Mowrey G. L. 1988. A new approach to coal interface detection: The in-seam seismic technique. IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications. Vol. 24. 660-665.

Luo X., A. King and M. van de Werken. 2009. Tomographic imaging of rock conditions ahead of mining using the shearer as a seismic source – A feasibility Study. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Vol. 47. 3671-78.

Luo X., A. King and M. van de Werken. 2008. Sensing roof conditions ahead of longwall mining using the shearer as a seismic source. Proceedings of the IEEE Interna- tional Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Bosten, July 2008. Vol. 4. IV17- IV20.

Ren F., Z. Liu and Z. Yang. 2010. Dynamics analyses for cutting part of shearer physical simulation system. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on In- formation and Automation. Harbin, China, June 2010. 260-264.

Mowrey G. L. 1991. Promising coal interface detection methods. Mining Engi- neering. Vol. 43. 134-138.

Yang W. and S. Wang. 2010. Coal rock interface sensing technology applied for horizon control of mining shearers. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Electrical and Control Engineering. Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 2010. 587-590.

Sahoo R. and A. M. Mazid. 2009. Application of opto-tactile sensor in shearer machine design to recognize rock surface in underground coal mining. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology. Gippsland, Australia, February 2009. 1-6.

Mowrey G. L. 1995. An infrared-based coal interface detection system. Pro- ceedings of 3rd International Symposium on Mine Mechanization and Automation. Golden, Colorado, USA, June 1995. Vol. 1. 21-31.

Ralston J. C. and A. D. Strange. 2012. Thermal infrared-based seam tracking for intelligent longwall shearer horizon control. Proceedings of the 12th Underground Coal Operators’ Conference. Wollongong, February 2012. 78-85.

Reid P. B., M. T. Dunn, D. C. Reid and J. C. Ralston. 2010. Real-world autom a- tion: New capabilities for underground longwall mining. Proceedings of the Australa- sian Conference on Robotics and Automation. Brisbane, December 2010. Section Exploration and Mining

Kelly M., D. Hainsworth, P. Lever and H. Gurgenci. 2002. Longwall automation – an ACARP landmark project. Proceedings of the Council of Mining and Metallurgical Institutions Congress: International codes, technology and sustainability for the mine r- als industry. Cairns, Australia, May 2002. 159-165.

Peters L. Jr., J. J. Daniels and J. D. Young. 1994. Ground penetrating radar as a surface environmental sensing tool. Proceedings of the IEEE. Vol. 82.1802-1822.

Ralston J. C., D. W. Hainsworth and R. J. McPhee. 1997. Application of ground penetrating radar for coal thickness measurement. Proceedings of the IEEE Region 10 Annual Conference. TENCON ’97 – Speech and Image Technolo gies for Computing and Telecommunications. Brisbane, December 1997. Vol. 2. 835-838.

Ellenbruch D. A. and D. R. Belsher. 1978. Electromagnetic technique of measur- ing coal layer thickness. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience Electronics. Vol. GE -16. 126-133.

Bausov I. Y., G. L. Stolarczyk, L. G. Stolarczyk and S. Koppenjan. 2007. Look- ahead radar and horizon sensing for coal cutting drums. Proceedings of the 4th Interna- tional Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar. Naples, June 2007. 208-211.

Hargrave C. O., N. V. Shuley, J. C. Ralston and D. W. Hainsworth. 2007. Radar level sensor for longwall creep and retreat measurement. Conference Record of the 2007 IEEE Industry Applications Conference, 2007. 42nd IAS Annual Meeting. New Orleans, September 2007. 2102-09.

Nutter R. S. Jr. and M. D. Aldridge. 1988. Status of mine monitoring and co m- munications. IEEE Transactions on Industry Application. Vol. 24. 820-826.

Haibo S., D. Xiong, T. Chao and Y. Xingang. 2010. Key technologies of 3DVR digital information platform for shearer. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanic Automation and Control Engineering. Wuhan, China, June 2010. 224-227.

Xu Z. and Z. Wang. 2009. Research on the technology of shearer 3DVR remote monitoring based on multi-sensor fusion. Proceedings of the 1st International Confe r- ence on Information Science and Engineering. Nanjing, China, December 2009. 1411- 1413.

Liu Z., Q. Zeng, Q. Lu and L. Wang. 2010. A monitoring and controlling system based on distributed industrial ring Ethernet in coal mine. Proceedings of the IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and A p- plications. Qingdao, ShanDong, China, July 2010. 336-340.

Reid D. C., D. W. Hainsworth, J. C. Ralston, R. J. McPhee and P. G. Ingram- Johnson. 2003. Industrial Ethernet for control and information interconnectivity in au- tomated longwall mining. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Applications in the Minerals Industries. Calgary, September 2003.

Tao P. and X. Liu. 2011. Hybrid wireless communication system using ZigBee and WiFi technology in the coalmine tunnels. Proceedings of the 3rd International Con- ference on Measuring Technology and Mechatronics Automation. Shanghai, January 2011. Vol. 2. 340-343. GeoConference on Science and Technologies in Geology, Exploration and Mining

An J. and S. Ma. 2010. The applications of GPRS in the mine monitoring and control system. Proceedings of the International Conference on E-Product, E-Service and E-Entertainment. Henan, China, November 2010.

Zang Q., B. Wang, G. Cheng, Z. Wang, J. Wei and D. Yan. 2009. Object posi- tion tracking based on E - Map and RFID in coal mine. Proceedings of 4th IEEE Co n- ference on Industrial Electronics and Applications. Xi'an, China, May 2009. 880-885.

Liu Z., C. Li, Q. Ding and D. Wu. 2010. A Coal mine personnel global position- ing system on wireless sensor networks. Proceedings of the 8th World Congress on In- telligent Control and Automation. Jinan, China, July 2010. 7026-31.

Xue W., S. S. Zhong and L. Meng. 2012. Design of personnel positioning sy s- tem of mine based on the average of RSSI. Proceedings of the IEEE International Con- ference on Automation and Logistics. Zhengzhou, China, August 2012. 239-242.

Zhou L., G. Chen. 2010. Location strategy of shearer based on wireless sensor network. Proceedings of the International Conference on Apperceiving Computing and Intelligence Analysis. Chengdu, China, December 2010. 169-173.

Mingxin, L., W. Mingming, L. Mingfeng, P. Yanguo, F. Xiao, Y. Jinghu, C. Yang, W. Juguang, G. Zhaoqian and C. Hongxiang. 2010. Study on mining technology in intelligent workface of wannian colliery. Proceedings of the 2nd WRI Global Con- gress on Intelligent Systems. Wuhan, China, December 2010. Vol. 3. 271-274.

Mi, J., C. Tan, L. Zhang and D. Sun. 2010. Research on the memory cutting path of shearer based on genetic algorithm. Journal of Coal Science and Engineering Vol. 16. 333-336.

Su, X., W. L i, L. Zhang, Y. Wang, Q. Fan, C. Sun and L. Yu. 2010. Application of RBF hierarchical neural network in automatic horizon control system of memory- cutting shearer. Proceedings of the Chinese Control and Decision Conference . Xuzhou, China, May 2010. 2015-18.

Fan, Q., W. Li, Y. Wang, L. Zou, X. Su, X. Yang and G. Ye. 2010. Shearer memory cutting strategy research basing on GRNN. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Application and System Modeling . Taiyuan, China, October 2010. Vol. 1. V1-96 - V1-99.

Reid, D., P. Henderson, D. Hainsworth, B. Roberts, A. Chacko, C. McLeod and R. Mehl. 2005. Interconnection of Landmark Compliant Longwall Mining Equipment – Shearer communication and functional specification for enhanced horizon control. CSIRO Exploration and Mining Report P2004/6, Version 2.36. Online available from: http://www.lascautomation.com/docs/HorizonCon- rolSpecificationV2.36.pdf (15. O c- tober 2012)

Junker, M. and A. Mozar. 2011. Method for controlling longwall mining oper a- tions. United States Patent Application Publication. Pub. No.: US 2011/0049964 A1.