APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTINUOUS MINING

摘要

Apparatus for controlling the operation of a mining system including a conti nuous miner, a tramming conveyor and a load-out vehicle operatively connected to the tramming conveyor. The apparatus includes a mas ter computer processor on the continuous miner and at le ast one slave computer processor under the direction of the master computer proc essor for controlling elements of the mining system othe r than the continuous miner. A pair of parallel data communication highways connect s the master computer processor and the slave computer processor and the functional status of the data communication highways is mo nitored. A radio communication path is provided between the master computer processor and the mining system. The master computer pro cessor operates the mining system in an automatic mining mode of operation when both data communication highways are functional and o perates the mining system in a reverse mode of operation if either data communication highway fails to function. In the reverse mode, all mining operations stop and the mining system can be reversed out of a mine hole. The master computer processor operates the mini ng system in a manual, radio controlled mode operation i f both data communication highways cease to function.