Design requirements and operational concepts for a robotic underground scissor bolter

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In order to improve the productivity and safety of underground mining operations, mineral resource companies**have been making renewed efforts to advance and apply new technologies. At the forefront in recent years has**been the design and application of robotics and automation technologies that remove humans from harsh and**dangerous environments by using robots that either act autonomously or semi-autonomously (e.g., via remote**or supervisory control). This proposal is about embarking on the task of incrementally automating the bolting**process, which is traditionally done by using bolting machines that require significant and direct human**involvement in dangerous conditions. This short project will focus specifying the design requirements and an**operational concept for automated bolting, which will be studied through the development of a computer-based**simulation. In collaboration with industry partner MacLean Engineering, we will design for fitting a bolter**with the necessary sensors and actuators in order to automatically position the machine's boom at a start**position, and facilitate future work in (semi-) automatically positioning and drilling based on a sensed tunnel**profile. This project will leverage the combined industrial/manufacturing experience of MacLean Engineering**and the technical expertise of the Mining Systems Laboratory at Queen's University in the areas of mining**robotics and automation.