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One of the U.S. Department of Energy,' PittsburghResearch Center (PRC) mine safiety and health research programs is developing technology that will :BIIOW remote-controlled operation of mechanized equipment nonnally used in underground room-andpillar coal mining, thereby permitting workers to be located away from the hazardous coal extraction area (the face). As part of this program, advanced machine navigation and control technologies are being developed for underground room-and-pillar and highwall coal mining that can be applied to commercially available mining equipment. These technologies use off-the-shelf components and a flexible control software architecture to minimize the effort required to adapt them to mining equipment.An accurate reliable navigation system that can provide the mining machine's heading and location at all times is a critical requirement for a remote-controlled mining system. After much research involving several different types of navigation sensors, the Honeywell Ring Laser Gyro Inertial Navigation System was selected as showing the most promise. It has been installed on a continuous mining machine at PRCs surface test facility. This paper describes the system being employed on a mining machine while final accuracy and performance testing continues.to hazards, such as roof and highwall falls, dust inhalation, and noise, and provide the operators with enough dormation and technology to effectively operate the machines remotely. PRC believes they have located the appropriate technology. In highwall mining systems, operators are already provided with a protected control center. In room-and-pillar situations, PRC suggests constructing a special control center, provided in the vicinity of the section power center, which in most cases will be less than 150 m fi-om the face area. From this center all activities can be controlled and directed by the machine operators.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL) participated in an experiment to facilitate the remote control of dozers used on coal stockpiles. The experiment consisted of supplementing the normal sensory cues an operator requires to manipulate the dozer from a remote location. NIOSH provided and tested a vision systems intended to give the operator the ability to operate the dozer safely and efficiently from a remote position. This paper highlights the genesis of the experiment, identifies the contributions of Consol Energy and Caterpillar, and details the NIOSH efforts and successful test results.

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The U.S. Bureau of Mines has integrated off-the-shelf components into a microcomputer-basedcontrol, Communication, and data coUection nehvork that provides a base for computercontrolled mini machine research and coal production applications. Functions provided by the network include closed-bop control, teleoperation, navigation, data coUection, and diagnostics. These functions are all provided to help pursue the Bureau's goal of moving the man off of the machine and to a safer area. The installation of the network or a Joy 14CM continuous mining macbine has accelerated the collection of data and the generation of navigation and control algorithm. The demonstrated functions of the system lends itself to potential use on other mining machine types.