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The mining industry is a labor production industry in bad conditions, mainly reflected vibration, dust, coal dust, gas, roof collapse, and insecurity.A man from Sudbury is in Chile testing a $3 million mining robot he helped design and build.

The robot, which can accurately determine dimensions of excavations underground, has the potential to improve the quality of mining work, said Greg Baiden, the CEO of Penguin Automated Systems. With the robot's help, workers can see exact locations of drill holes and tunnels underground without physically travelling there.

Baiden noted the project has captured attention beyond the copper mining company in Chile. The teacher of robotics and mine automation at Laurentian University said he is starting to get calls from around the world.

'I got a call from South Africa, from a big mining company there, that wants us to bring them [there],” he said. “We have some other test areas in Canada as well. So, there's another set of robots being built at our research centre in Sudbury.'

Can help make mining safer

In a previous interview with CBC News, Baiden said the robot was also designed with recent mining disasters in mind.

'In the states, particularly in the coal mines, the problem they had was that they couldn't re-establish the mine quickly enough to get to the people,” he said.

“To do it safely, you have to make sure the ventilation is in the right place … you [have to] build your way back in.'

Baiden called his machine 'a reconnaissance robot' that can go in and give and survey 'what the falls of ground look like.'

“We have the ability to put ventilation sensors on it, so we can tell the condition of the air,' he said. 'And it'll cover such difficult terrain that it can go into situations where maybe even people can't go, and it's got the ability to carry a load.'

These factors of insecurity the greatest threats to the safety of mine workers. Therefore, the mining industry urgently require the development of a variety of different uses robots to replace human beings engaged in a variety of toxic, hazardous and dangerous environment. In addition, the extraction process is generally more complex, this complexity is difficult to use general automated machinery to complete, with some intelligent and has a fairly flexible robot is currently the best method.According to the special conditions and characteristics of the underground work, the application of robots in the following areas:A special seam mining robot. Generally with a mechanized shearer mining, but for such a thin seam of exceptional circumstances, the use of the comprehensive mechanization of shearer mining is very inconvenient, and sometimes even impossible. If the employer to the mining operations very difficult and dangerous, but if you give up do not, but also caused a great waste of resources. Therefore, the remote control robot special seam mining is the best method. This mining robot should be able to pick up a variety of tools, such as high-speed transit, motor and other mining blasting equipment, etc., and can operate these tools. The shoulder of the robot should be equipped with a strong light source and visual sensors, the mining area in front of timely sent to the operator.2, drilling robot. This robot can use sensors to determine the upper edge of the roadway, so that you can automatically aim at the tunnel seam, and then drill arranged at prescribed intervals during the drilling process computer control, at any time in accordance with the speed of adjustment bit of rock hardness and force size and the shape of the drill, which can greatly improve productivity, operating in a safe place to monitor the whole process on the line.3, the underground shotcrete robot. Underground shotcrete job is a very onerous and harmful to human health job, this job is mainly done by people operating mechanical devices, many defects of this method. Shotcrete robot can not only improve the quality of spraying can also be freed from the harsh and onerous operating environment.4, gas, ground pressure test the robot. Gas and rockburst underground work in unsafe natural factors, in the event of a sudden accident, it is very dangerous and serious.However, gas and shock pressure before the formation of an unexpected accident, will show the various signs, such as rock fracture. Mobile robot with a dedicated new sensor continuously monitors the status of mining for early detection of unexpected accident of the aura, and to take appropriate preventive measures.With the continuous deepening and development of the robotics research, the application areas of the mining robot will become increasingly wide economic and social benefits will be more significant. As the professional manufacturer of complete sets of mining machinery, such as belt conveyor,ore processing plant, Henan Hongxing is always doing the best in products and service.