A kind of Chinese technology that is both familiar and strange is making the whole world surprised

Hell on earth

For the traditional coal miner, the work is like hell on earth.

Diving into the darkness 100m underground through narrow tunnels, miners dig “black gold” amid clouds of dust, sweat and the crumbling noise of giant cutters used to cut rock.

Mining is considered one of the most highly regulated jobs in China, and there are special provisions in the law that allow workers to retire at 55 instead of 60.

Mining operations are also extremely dangerous, with accidents claiming the lives of hundreds of people each year.

In February, an open-pit coal mine collapsed in Inner Mongolia, leaving at least 53 people dead or missing. According to official data, of the 367 mine accidents and 518 mine deaths reported in China last year, 168 accidents and 245 deaths were specifically related to coal mines.

However, a new type of technology is transforming China’s coal mining industry.

Fu Shaohui is a coal miner in northern China’s Shaanxi province. He works at Hongliulin coal mine, one of the largest in the country, which has applied sensing, imaging and automatic remote control technologies to mine coal more efficiently and safely.

This saves Fu from having to go underground as often as before.

The excavator is now operated from an on-ground control room, where live videos and real-time data are displayed on multiple screens, including temperature and gas volume. This technological revolution is supported by Huawei Technologies’ 5G network infrastructure.

With the help of four explosion-proof 5G stations installed between underground hydraulic posts, Fu and six other miners were able to make video calls to communicate with colleagues in the upper control room when they supervise production and conduct routine maintenance.

This marks a big change from having to operate the machine manually for hours on end. They can also hold video chats with friends and family from time to time during breaks.

“We used to have 13 people underground in one shift, but now there are only seven. Soon we will only need five people working underground,” Fu said.

5G technology comes into play

The partnership between Huawei and state-owned mining group Shaanxi Coal is just one example of the digital upgrade of the Chinese economy. For President Xi Jinping, transforming traditional industries is as important as developing new ones.

As Huawei’s once lucrative smartphone business stalled as trade sanctions cut off access to high-end chips, the telecom giant turned to providing industrial solutions. .

Huawei has set up several business groups called legions to serve a variety of industries such as ports and hospitals. Mining is the first industry that Huawei targets.

Xu Jun, chief technology officer of Huawei’s mine operations business, said the coal mining industry is “easy fruit” for the company.

According to Shi Chao, head of smart mining at Hongliulin coal mine, the smart upgrade has halved the number of workers needed underground and greatly reduced the workload, as miners only need to intervene when problems arise.

” Our ultimate goal is to have absolutely no workers working underground ,” Shi told reporters.

As the world’s largest coal producer with 4,000 mines, China aims to make the most dangerous and large-scale mines “smart” by 2025, and eventually implement modernization for all. all coal mines by 2035.

Future apps

Currently, more than 1,000 active coal mines have been smartly upgraded, with 620 million tons of annual output, according to National Energy Administration data released in May. Accordingly, by the end of the year. By 2022, the total investment in smart mine development in China will reach nearly 200 billion yuan.

Since China began its nationwide 5G development plan in June 2019, the country’s three largest telecommunications service providers have built extensive 5G networks supported by more than 2.6 million 5G base stations as of the end of March this year.

5G is seen as a revolutionary force in the digitization of traditional heavy industries, such as mining, ports and steel.

In Huawei’s project with Shaanxi Coal, the telecom equipment maker not only installs 5G base stations, but also provides cloud and AI capabilities to create a digital twin together. of underground operations on an online platform in the command room.

Ai Zhonghua, the Huawei engineer who leads the Hongliulin mine project, said the biggest challenge was to unify the standards of data collected from machines, sensors, cameras and many devices provided by other vendors. produce, and ultimately allow them to connect.

With unified standards, the system manages to connect 2,700 underground devices and transmit 170 million pieces of data per day to the command room in Hongliulin.

A similar system has been deployed in Xiaobaodang, a coal mine 70 kilometers from Hongliulin, laying the groundwork for a pilot test of an underground self-driving car.

Once operational, miners can call in driverless shuttles, enabled by 5G, via smartphones, to travel through underground tunnels.