Technical conception and practice of joint virtual simulation for coal seamand equipment in fully-mechanized coal mining face

The coal seam and equipment in fully-mechanized coal mining face have been modeled separately in previous researches. The lack of a method to identify the correlation between coal and equipment can lead to significant simulation error between virtual and actual production system. This paper aims to integrate coal and equipment into a whole operation system by compiling the interaction between virtual equipment and virtual coal seam. The virtual reality software Unity3D is used to obtain the key operation information, characteristics, and status of the system. Based on the reverse reconstruction technology and the Mesh grid collision body technology, a virtual coal seam simulation system that consists of virtual intrinsic seam and virtual real-time updating seam is established. The collaborative simulation of equipment is performed and the virtual interaction model between equipment and coal seam is established. A series of simulations for equipment behavior directly acting on coal floor are studied, including virtual laying of scraper conveyor, virtual support of hydraulic groups, and virtual cutting of coal seam roof and floor by shearer. On the basis of underground geological survey data, the inherent coal seam is reconstructed according to cycle points and equipment points. The virtual coal seam data is updated according to the shearer’s real-time cutting track of the front and rear drums. At the same time, the real-time coal seam information acts inversely on the equipment operation and reappears the self-adaptive propulsion process of equipment in the coal seam environment. This method can establish a reliable relationship between the equipment and coal seam, providing technical support for construction of real time virtual image of production system for fully-mechanized coal mining face.