Radar target identification of mining infrastructure for automated mine machinery navigation

Author

Hargrave, C.O. ; Shuley, N.V. ; Bialkowski, M.E. ; Ralston, J.C.

fYear

2011

fDate

11-15 April 2011

Firstpage

802

Lastpage

806

Abstract

A novel industrial application of radar sensing technology as an aiding source for navigation systems in autonomous mining equipment is described. This paper proposes a radar-based solution to provide a stable external reference for an existing inertial-technology mining navigation system. It documents trials of a 26 GHz radar unit in an underground coal mine, using only the existing mine infrastructure in the form of reinforcing wall and roof bolts as targets. The presented pilot trial attempts to identify the bolt plates by their RCS back-scatter. An improvement to this approach, using complex natural resonance (CNR) for target characterisation based on broad bandwidth excitation, is investigated and a theoretical simulation of the target identification process is described.

Keywords

coal; machinery; mining industry; navigation; radar target recognition; RCS backscatter; automated mine machinery navigation; autonomous mining equipment; complex natural resonance; frequency 26 GHz; inertial-technology mining navigation system; mining infrastructure; radar sensing technology; radar target identification; target identification process; underground coal mine; Fasteners; Fuel processing industries; Navigation; Radar cross section; Radar tracking; Target tracking;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP), Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on

Conference_Location

Rome

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0250-1

Type

conf

Filename

5782558