# Conforming Capacitive Load Cells for Conical Pick Cutters

## TL;DR

A new sensor is developed to measure cutting forces in coal mining, improving safety and efficiency by allowing operators to monitor from a distance.

## Contribution

A conforming capacitive load cell sensor is proposed for conical pick cutters to measure cutting forces with improved accuracy using regression models.

## Key findings

- The sensor tracks normal force with a mean absolute error less than 6 kN using linear regression.
- A neural network with polynomial expansion reduces the error to less than 4 kN with an R2 score of around 0.80.
- The sensor conforms to the tooling, increasing stiffness and sensitivity compared to the initial setup.

## Abstract

In underground coal mining, machine operators put themselves at risk when getting close to the machine or cutting face to observe the process. To improve the safety and efficiency of machine operators, a cutting force sensor is proposed. A linear cutting machine is used to cut two separate coal samples cast in concrete with conical pick cutters to simulate mining with a continuous miner. Linear and neural network regression models are fit using 100 random 70:30 test/train splits. The normal force exceeds 60 kN during the rock-cutting tests, and it is averaged using a low pass filter with a 10 Hertz cutoff frequency. The sensor uses measurements of the resonant frequency of capacitive cells in a steel case to determine cutting forces. When used in the rock-cutting experiments, the sensor conforms to the tooling and the stiffness and sensitivity are increased compared to the initial configuration. The sensor is able to track the normal force on the conical picks with a mean absolute error less than 6 kN and an R2 score greater than 0.60 using linear regression. A small neural network with a second-order polynomial expansion is able to improve this to a mean absolute error of less than 4 kN and an R2 score of around 0.80. Filtering measurements before regression fitting is explored. This type of sensor could allow operators to assess tool wear and material type using objective force measurements while maintaining a greater distance from the cutting interface.