Theoretical design and dynamic simulation of new mining paths of tracked miner on deep seafloor

Abstract

With comprehensive considerations of the operational safety and collection efficiency for the tracked miner collecting the seafloor poly-metallic nodules, two new improved mining paths for the miner on the deep seafloor were proposed. Compared to the conventional mining path, the design principles and superiorities of the two new paths are that the miner turning with relative long radius should avoid large sinkage and high slip, so as to ensure its operational safety, while the space between its straight-line trajectories before and after the turning is optimum, which is designed as the total width of the miner, and collect nodules as more as possible, so as to ensure its collection efficiency. To realize the new mining paths, theoretical designs and quantitative calculations were carried out to determine the exact positions for the speed controls of the miner during its whole operation process. With the new dynamic model of the miner, and through regulations of the speeds of the left and right tracks of the miner on the exact motion positions according to the theoretical calculations, the two new improved mining paths for the miner on the seafloor were successfully simulated, thus the turning radius of the miner in the simulation is about 21.8 m, while the distance between the straight-line trajectories before and after the turning is about 5.2 m. The dynamic simulation results preliminarily prove the feasibility of these two new mining paths, and further can provide important theoretical guidance and useful technical reference for the practical tracked miner operation and control on the seafloor.

Keywords

deep ocean mining / tracked miner / single-body model / mesh element model / collection efficiency / mining path / dynamic simulation

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