Measurement of the pick holders position on the side surface of the cutting head of a mining machine with the use of stereoscopic vision

Abstract

Abstract The efficiency of rock cutting with mining machines is largely determined by the arrangement of picks, i.e. the number and their arrangement on the working unit of the mining machine. Not only the correct selection of the pick system for given conditions at the design stage is important, but also ensuring compliance with the design of the finished product. Strives, among others therefore, for robotisation of the process of manufacturing cutting heads/drums. From the point of view of the robotisation of the pick holders welding process, it is necessary to assess in real time the position of the pick holders relative to the side surface of the cutting head body. A convenient way is to use contactless measurement methods based on vision systems. The article presents a method of determining the position of pick holders relative to the side surface of the cutting head body of a roadheader, during their positioning, using a 3D vision system. Data processing was carried out in the Matlab software using the libraries of the Computer Vision Toolbox. A mathematical model describing the transformation of images recorded by cameras has been presented. On the basis of this model, the distribution of distances between the pick holder base points and the side surface of the cutting head was determined for a given pick holder setting. The developed measurement method was tested on an experimental stand built in the Laboratory of robotics of the Department of Mining Mechanization and Robotisation at the Silesian University of Technology.