Abstract
Roadway excavation is the leading project in coal mining, and the cantilever roadheader is the main equipment in roadway excavation. Autonomous cutting by cantilever roadheaders is the key to realize safe, efficient and intelligent tunneling for underground roadways. In this paper, the working device of a cantilever roadheader was simplified into a series of translation or rotation joints, and the spatial pose model and spatial pose coordinate system of the roadheader were established. Using the homogeneous transformation matrix and the robot-related theory, the space pose transformation matrix of the roadheader and the space pose equation of the cutting head of the roadheader were derived. The forward kinematics and inverse kinematics of the cutting head were solved by using the D-H parameter method and an inverse transformation method. The location coordinates of the inflection point of the cutting process path for a rectangular roadway were determined, and cutting path planning and control were carried out based on the inflection point coordinates. Finally, MATLAB software was used to simulate the limit cutting area of the cutting head and the cutting process path. The simulation results showed that the limit cutting section had a bulging waist shape, the boundary around the roadway was flat, and the roadway cutting error was controlled within 1mm, which verified the reliability and effectiveness of the autonomous cutting theory of the roadheader. It lays a mathematical model and theoretical foundation for the realization of “autonomous operation of unmanned tunneling equipment”.