Other

Carnegie Mellon University

Inc. Joy Mm Delaware

David K Herdle

Herman Herman

Anthony Joseph Stentz

Mark Ollis

Christopher Chandler Fromme

John E Bares

Frank Higgins

Bryan G Campbell

Terry M Thomas

Alonzo James Kelly

Douglas F Anderson

Darin M Sutton

Timothy Ennis Hegadorn

Richard McCargo Moore, Jr

Steven John Scheding

Jorgen Pederson

Phillip E Smith

A mining machine having a position sensing and control apparatus is claimed. The mining machine has a vehicle body having forward and rearward ends and movable along a mine floor. A cutter head is mounted on the forward end of the mining machine for upward and downward movement relative to the vehicle body. A conveyor mounted on the vehicle body conveys material cut by the cutter head. The position sensing and control apparatus has at least one light source and at least one imaging device mounted on the machine. The position sensing and control apparatus captures images of natural features of an interior surface of a mine, digitizes the images and determines the distance between the imaging device and the natural feature to determine positional change of the machine.

Vision-based motion sensor for mining machine control

A mining machine comprising a vehicle body having forward and rearward ends, the vehicle body being movable along a mine floor, a cutter head mounted on the forward end of the vehicle body, and a position sensing and control apparatus including first and second generally vertical, generally parallel surfaces on the vehicle body, an off-board light source emitting a light beam that strikes the surfaces, an imaging device for imaging both of the plates in a single image, and a computer receiving the single image from the camera, the computer using the single image to determine at least one of the roll, yaw and lateral offset of the machine.

Miner guidance using laser and image analysis

Growing community of inventors

Cranberry Township, PA, United States of America

David K Herdle