Fundamental Study on Automation of Rock Splitting Method

Abstract

Recently, the rock splitting method is often used to construct the tunnel because the blasting method is restricted in the construction site near city area suburbs. However, the working efficiency of the rock splitting method is extremely low. Therefore, the automation of rock splitting method has been receiving considerable attention to increase the working efficiency. This study is concerned with the automation of rock splitting method for tunnel construction. In order to automate the rock splitting task, the following tasks are necessary:(1) Automatic recognition of holes drilled on the cutting face.(2) Automatic control to make the tip of the bigger move to the recognized holes.(3) Automatic insert of the bigger into the drilled hole.In this study, the image processing procedure was proposed by using CCD camera and laser pointer in order to recognize the location of the holes drilled on the uneven cutting surface. Furthermore, the algorithm to insert the bigger automatically into the drilled holes by using the strain gauges attached on the bigger. It was confirmed through the model experiment that this algorithm worked well. If the hole is drilled vertically to the cutting face, it took 1 minute to complete the insert of the bigger. However, if the hole is not drilled vertically to the cutting face, it took 12 minutes to complete the insert of the bigger, and this time is much larger than that in the case that the hole is drilled vertically. Therefore, it was confirmed that the holes should be drilled vertically to the cutting face to increase the working efficiency by rock splitting method.