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Longwall mining accounts for 90 per cent of the 70 million tonnes of underground coal mined in Australia per year.

In the longwall process a shearer, a machine with large rotating cutting drums, is driven back and forth across the seam, with each pass taking a massive ‘slice’ of coal. Keeping the system aligned with and horizontal to the seam is crucial not just for efficiency but for safety.The Landmark Longwall Automation Project uses an inertial guidance system to continuously steer the longwall shearer by plotting its position in 3D space. Previous guidance systems have stopped mining to correct the positioning – this system does it continuously without interrupting production.

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