Coal is an important primary energy source in my country.
 
However, while providing favorable support for my country's energy security, nearly two million miners across the country carry out high-intensity operations every day in high-risk, high-temperature, high-humidity, and high-dust environments.

Limited by the harsh and complex working environment in mines, the development and application of coal mine robots has always been one of the problems in the field of robotics.
 
According to statistics, new cases of pneumoconiosis among coal mine employees account for more than 70% of new cases of coal mine occupational diseases. The application of special robots represented by coal mine robots into industrial applications is an important guarantee for improving the safety of employees and realizing stable energy supply.
 
In the early days, coal mine robots refer to coal mine rescue and detection robots that assist rescue work after coal mine accidents. This type of robot lacks theoretical support and is only equipped with simple explosion-proof technology and requires human control and decision-making.
 
Since 2020, robots for intelligent detection, mining, excavation, and transportation have begun to receive attention. With the emergence of various coal mine intelligent sensors and controllers, researchers have a deeper understanding of coal mine robots, and some products have entered the "deep water area" ".
 
Coal mine robots specifically refer to robots that complete tasks such as excavation, mining, ventilation, transportation, and coal preparation.
 
In the process of intelligent coal mine construction, traditional mines with frequent accidents, labor-intensive, and low automation are transformed into safe, efficient, technology-intensive, and unmanned intelligent mines. Coal mine robots are undoubtedly the basis for promoting intelligent coal mine construction. Robots The application of technology can purposely solve the difficulties of special posts, reduce the incidence of coal mine accidents, and improve the efficiency of coal mining.
 
Market Hotspots The sales volume in the early stage of development has reached nearly 1 billion
 
Currently, research on coal mine robots has become a hot topic.
 
According to the data of the "2022 Coal Industry Development Annual Report" released by the China Coal Industry Association, the new momentum and advantages of the coal industry continue to grow. In the past 10 years, the number of coal mines in the country has decreased from 13,000 to less than 4,400, the production coal mines with an annual output of 10 million tons have grown from 33 to 79, and the production capacity has increased from 450 million tons/year to 1.28 billion tons/year. The construction of intelligent coal mines has started from scratch. By the end of 2022, 572 intelligent coal mines and 1,019 intelligent mining working faces have been built across the country, and 31 types of coal mine robots have been applied on-site in coal mines.

Recently, China Social Sciences Literature Publishing House released the "China Robot Industry Development Report (2022~2023)" online. One of the report's special reports, "China's Coal Mine Robot Development Report", shows that the coal mine robot market is still in the early stage of development, and the market competition pattern is relatively scattered, but the current sales have reached nearly 1 billion yuan, of which security control and tunneling coal mine robots developed more rapidly.
 
In 2021, there will be 368 coal mine robot companies in my country, an increase of 25.17% over the previous year. The overall development level of coal mine robots in developed countries represented by the United States is relatively high, and the cost of coal mining is low. In the future, driven by technologies such as robots, developing countries with intensive coal mining labor will have more market demand for coal mine robots, which will promote the expansion of the global coal mine robot market.
 
The "Report" predicts that by 2027, the demand for coal mine inspection robots in China will be 902 units, corresponding to a market size of 759 million yuan for coal mine inspection robots, and 692 units for coal mine excavation robots, corresponding to a sales volume of 2.76 billion yuan.
 
Climbing and crossing hurdles, key technologies need to be solved urgently
 
On the whole, the development of mining robots is in a critical period of climbing and overcoming hurdles.
 
Since the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" put forward the intelligentization of coal mines, although great achievements have been made, it is still in the mature stage of cultivation. Due to the particularity of the coal production environment, there are still many key technologies for the development of coal mine robots that need to be solved urgently.

First of all, coal mine robots work in the complex underground environment of coal mines, and the safety protection and explosion-proof design requirements are extremely strict. In order to meet the explosion-proof requirements, the key modules need to increase the size, weight and other parameters, which cannot be lightweight and affect the movement of coal mine robots. Mobility and flexibility, especially affect the adaptability of underground complex terrain.
 
Secondly, when faced with an unstable working environment, it is easy to encounter unexpected accidents, which may cause failures such as short circuit of the robot, sensor failure, or insufficient battery life. Therefore, the mechanical structure and materials of coal mine robots, energy navigation capabilities, remote communication and perception, control systems and other important parts have become the technical core for the development of all different types of coal mine robots.
 
Thirdly, underground humidity, insufficient light, poor line of sight, and large dust, these unfavorable factors cause coal mine robots to be a research and development application in terms of accurate perception of information, implementation of target detection, path planning and intelligent control of obstacle avoidance, and its reliability and stability. big problem.
 
In addition, the charging technology of coal mine underground robots, precise navigation technology, and the collaboration of underground robot groups with all-terrain adaptability are also technical problems that need to be overcome at present.
 
Epilogue and the future：
 
At present, more than 370 mines across the country have applied a total of 31 types of coal mine robots for inspection, spraying, drilling and anchoring, fire fighting, and rescue. New technologies such as precise control, positioning and navigation, machine vision, and independent decision-making in the field of robotics have been promoted in the mining industry, helping coal machinery equipment companies to achieve intelligent and robotic upgrades.
 
The effect of intelligent construction reducing the number of people and increasing safety is constantly emerging. Since 2016, the number of workers in dangerous and heavy positions in coal mines nationwide has decreased by 370,000. With the advent of the era of intelligence, the maturity of computer technology and the promotion of 5G networks will lay a solid foundation for the development of mine intelligence.
 
Under the trend of the global intelligence era, mine intelligence is only a matter of time, and the emergence of coal mine robots will strongly promote the construction of coal mine intelligence. Considering the country's stable demand for coal, the harsh environment of coal mine production and the advent of the intelligent age, it is imperative for robots to be stationed in coal mines. Under this development trend, in the near future, coal mine production will be truly unmanned.

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