Research of the Possibility of Application of Vector Quantisation Method for Effective Process Control of Rocks Disintegration by Rotary Drilling

Rotary drilling belongs to the key methods of rock separation not only in mining, but also in wider areas of geotechnologies 1, 2 . The most efficient separation of rocks is in so-called volume area which can be achieved with the correct choice of work tool and work mode while taking into account the geomechanical properties of rock separation. Theoretical research of rock separation by rotary drilling and subsequent experiments on a drilling stand 1, 3, 4 showed that there exists an optimum – efficient mode of drilling from the viewpoint of specific energy consumption w (J/m), from the viewpoint of the wear of the separation tool, but also from the viewpoint of the speed of drilling v (m/s). These facts led to the idea of efficient control of the process of drilling. Further research showed that in the neighborhood of efficient mode of the process of drilling the accompanying vibro-acoustic signal has identifiable properties 3, 4 . In the contribution are given first partial results in the area of design of control system for the process of rock drilling, based on recognition of geomechanical class of rock with the method of vector quantization. At the same time, the necessary information about the character of the process are obtained from the signal of the accompanying vibro-acoustic emissions.