Application of Computers and Operations Research in the Mineral Industry –

Dessureault, Ganguli, Kecojevic & Dwyer (eds)

© 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1537 449 9

Object-oriented analysis and modeling for the mining production

system of fully mechanized sub-level caving

J. Li, H. Song, D. Geng & Q. Ma

Shandong Institute of Business and Technology Teachers, Yantai Shandong Province, China

ABSTRACT: On the basis of the ideas of object-oriented software development, author introduces the advanced
mechanism of object-oriented technology and analyzes the MSCPS. Besides, the objects are classified as two
catalogs: physical objects and logical objects. The main classes, attributes and services of each class are defined
and described. The object-oriented model of MSCPS is also constructed. Finally, with the development of
reliability simulation software of MSCPS, the object-oriented method is feasible for the reusing of the object-
oriented model. Evidently, it is valuable for further research of the software design and development.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 BASIC IDEAS OF OBJECT-ORIENTED

Since the fully mechanized sub-level caving technol-
ogy had been firstly applied in China, it had played
an important role in the coal production. The manage-
ment and automation of the mining production have
become more and more important in the modern min-
ing. Any research that related to the fully mechanized
sub-level caving production system (abbreviated in:
MSCPS) is undoubtedly very beneficial. Regarding
to the predicaments existed in the development coal
mines software, author brings out his own views at a
different angle in this paper.
Because of its highly productive and efficient char-
acteristics, the MSCPS is wildly used in Chinese min-
ing industries. Being a human-machine-environment
system, the MSCPS is complicated and uneasy to
manage. Nowadays, many managers of coal mines
(especially some high production and high efficiency
ones) have recognized the importance of choosing
software to facilitate the management and decision-
making. In fact, there is already lots of software
designed for coal mines. Unfortunately they had not
been performed fully. Some are used once and then
put away. That causes lots of wastes. The reason for
this situation is that the software is designed with a
process-oriented method. With further researches and
various requirements, the shortcomings in design are
exposed, and the upgrading and reusing of the soft-
ware become very difficult. To meet the challenge of
these, a method called Object-oriented technology has
been proposed in recent years, and it is regarded as
the “best way” to deal with the so-called “software
crisis”. Accordingly, more attentions are paid to the
Object-oriented technology.
TECHNOLOGY
The object-oriented method is the way of analyzing,
thinking and designing. It is proceeded from things
(namely the object) which objectively existed, and
used to construct the software system in a way like
the human thinking as much as possible. Comparing
with Process-Oriented method, it has the following
advantages:
(1) Separating the problems into components or basic
elements. The problem model can be set up in
a way closer to human thinking, and simulation
of the objective entity can be carried out. This
designed software can describe the real world
directly as much as possible.
(2) Easing to develop. It can be developed in shorter
time and more efficiently, and reusable. There are
many kinds of class libraries to use, thus, the
period of development can be shortened.
(3) Easing to upgrade. The application program is
easier to maintain and upgrade. Inheritance and
encapsulation make the modification of the appli-
cation program become more feasible.
Above-mentioned advantages had object-oriented
method have, because it has a great deal of advanced
mechanisms and excellent features that traditional
method does not possess:
(1) Object. The object is a basic entity in the system,
which has attributes and services. The attribute
shows the static characteristics of things; Service
shows the dynamic characteristic of the object and
allows various kinds of operations.

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 (2) Message-passing. It is a concept that displays
interrelations of each entity.
(3) Abstract. Abstract means to neglect those aspects
unrelated to the themes and pay attention to the
aspects related at present.
(4) Encapsulation. Encapsulation indicates that the
design details are hided while services are pro-
vided outwards. Encapsulation can reduce com-
plexity of problem and make us needn’t care about
and find out details of the software.
(5) Inheritance. It is a mechanism which shows similar
natures of the object and a good way for the pro-
grammer to utilize efficiently: functions of father
class can be used by son class directly.
Because of data abstract and adopting encapsulation
technology, the object-oriented method has reduced
the interrelations from each module. Thus interactions
among the programmers are also reduced. With data
type being defined by the object-oriented method in
detail, the higher utilizing ratio of code can be achieved
by encapsulating them together. That can make people
solve the problem progressively while needn’t go to
revise the design work already finished and reduce
costs greatly for changes in the future.
3 OBJECT-ORIENTED ANALYSIS AND
MODELING OF MSCPS
The object-oriented analysis is an important technol-
ogy in the modern software engineering. It includes not
only recognizing technology of objects, also services
and attributes recognition and modeling. The correct
usage of object-oriented analysis technology will make
the goal systems well reusable and performances trans-
plantable and shorten the development period of the
software.
According to the systematic views, the MSCPS can
be regarded as a human-machine-environment system
and it includes the human factors, the equipment of
mining and transporting, supporting, powering, and
environmental conditions. The mining and transport-
ing equipment includes the mining machinery, front
conveyer, draw-hole, back conveyer, crusher, trans-
port conveyer, set and sector transport; roof control
equipment includes hydraulic pressure bracket and end
bracket; electric equipment mainly refers to supply
power equipments, including voltage transformer, feed
switch and relays, etc; environmental factors include
roof, gas, water, diversification of coal seam, fault-
age and subside pole etc; human factors include many
misacts against the regulations of mining operation,
such as supporting delay, displacing cutting or mal-
organizing, etc. Above situations and conditions are
relative with the mining working face regarded as
“part”. According to the influences to the production,
all the equipment and conditions are either regarded
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Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
1 2
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
3 4
Figure 1. Sketch map of fully mechanized sub-level caving
production system. 1-Coal-mining machinery; 2-Front Con-
veyer; 3-Draw-Hole; 4-Back Conveyer; 5-Crusher; 6-Trans-
fer Conveyer; 7-Set; 8-Section Conveyer; 9-Pump Station;
10-Electrical Equipment; 11-Environment Factor; 12-Human
factor.
as a part alone or merged into a part. Its sketch map
can be shown in Figure 1.
On basis of the sketch of MSCPS, object analy-
sis can be fulfilled through entity analysis. It should
follow the principles that Coad and Yourdon had put
forward.
Accordingly, the MSCPS can be screen out and each
entity in Figure 1 can be regarded as an object. The
objects are mining machinery, front conveyer, draw-
hole, back conveyer, crusher, transfer conveyer, set,
section conveyer, pump station, electrical equipment,
environment factor and human factor respectively.
Then objects are divided into two kinds: physics and
logic objects. Physics objects point to the material
component; the logic objects refer to the invisible com-
ponent of the system. Based on entity analysis, the
physics classes include mining machine class (CCM),
front conveyer class (CFC), draw-hole class (CDH),
back conveyer class (CBC), crusher class (CCR),
transfer conveyer class (CTC), set class (CST), sec-
tion conveyer class (CSC), pump station class (CPS),
electrical equipment class (CEE), environment factor
class (CEF) etc. In fact, to simulate the production sys-
tem comprehensively, there are other classes needed
to be constructed including working face class (CWF)
(to describe attributes of the Working Face), time class
(CTM) (to reproduce all kinds of time needed to sim-
ulate), input class (CIP), output class (COP) (to output
results), stat. and analysis class (CSA) (to stat. and ana-
lyze), human interface class (CHI), help class (CHP)
(to provide help) etc. These kinds of classes and human
factors (CHF), environmental factors (CEF) belong to
the logic classes.
After confirming the classes, the object’s attributes,
services, and information interface should be defined
with intact and succinct code. The attributes must
be able to fully and accurately describe the physical
parameters , performance parameters of the objects in
actual systems and some parameters needed in the sim-
ulation system. The services should describe various
kinds of behaviors and operations of the objects accu-
rately; the information interface permits the object
state and process of information can be inquired
by outside classes. As shown in Table 1 concretely.
Entity’s attributes, service and information interface,
are all encapsulated in the class, some of the attributes
 Table 1. Object class of fully mechanized sub-level caving production system.

Object
catalog Entity Class Attribute Service

Mining machinery CCM Model, Mining speed, Mining Mining coal, Breakdown, Maintain,
mode, Feed Mode, Empty Mining Feed, Move, etc.
Speed, Incline Feed Speed, etc.
Physical Front Conveyer CFC Model, Number, Position, etc. Convey, Push, Breakdown, Maintain, etc.
Draw-hole CDH Model, Position, Opened Number, Draw, Breakdown, Maintain, etc.
Draw Step, Draw mode, etc.
Object Back Conveyer CBC Model, Number, Position, etc. Convey, Push, Breakdown, Maintain, etc.
Class Crusher CCR Model, Position, etc. Crush, Breakdown, Maintain
Transfer CTC Model, etc. Convey, Breakdown, Maintain, etc.
Conveyer Set CST Model, Position, Push speed, Set, Breakdown, Maintain
Push mode, Set Mode, etc.
Section Conveyer CSC Model, Number, Position, etc. Convey, Breakdown, Maintain, etc.
Pump Station CPS Model, Number, Position, etc. Work, Breakdown, Maintain, etc.
Electrical Equipment CEE Model, Number, Position, etc. Work, Breakdown, Maintain, etc.
Environment Factor CEF Water Amount, Gas density,
Fault age condition, etc.
Logic Human Factor CHF Failure time to mine, Failure Time Fail to Draw, Fail to mine,
to craw, Failure time to push etc. Fail to push etc.
Object Working Face CWF Working face length, Advance
Length, Recovery ratio, Output,
Coal thickness, Coal rigidity, etc.
Class Control CCT Control parameter, Arithmetic, etc. Compute, Simulate
Time CTM Breakdown time, Maintain time, Produce time
Work time, etc.
Input CIP Input Parameter Needed Input Parameter
Output COP Output parameter Output result
Stat. Analysis CSA Compute parameter Stat. and Analyze, etc.
Human Interface CHI Provide interface
Help CHP Provide help

are private, some are public. So as to guarantee the void JinDao(void); // incline feed
information is hidden effectively, the private attributes float Getm_twork(); //worktime of
are only available for inside member functions, and //coal-mining machine
unable to be used by external object services. float Getm_lwork(); //mining length
Taking CCM class as an example, to show how the ...... ...... //etc.
attributes and services of the CCM class are added CCM(); //
(described in C++ language, developed with Visual virtual ∼CCM(); //
C++ 6.0). };
// Page_ CCMJ.h : header file In view of the above, the object-oriented analysis
Class CCM: public CTM //public inheritance model of MSCPS can be set up with Coad/Yourdon
{ method. The Figure 2 shows the inheritance relation
Private: //private attributes of the classes. Class CCM, CFC, CDH, CBC, CCR,
float m_vwork; //cutting speed CTC, CST, CSC, CPS, CEE, CEF, CHF are inher-
float m_vkongdao; //empty cutting speed ited from class CTM; class CHI is inherited from CIP,
float m_vxieqie; //incline feed speed COP, CHP, CSA.. The arrow expresses the messages
bool b_work; //work state passing among objects. Instance and attribute and
bool b_brkdwn; //break down state service are transferred between all kinds of classes.
str fm; //cut mode
str JDFS; //feed mode
Public: //public attribute 4 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS AND
...... ...... //etc. CONCLUSION
Public: //public function
void Breakdown(void); //break down function According to above the object-oriented analysis
void Mining(void); //mining function model of MSCPS, the author had developed an

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 CCM in the CCM class rather than in CCT class. Thus the
interferences among the modules and the developing
CFC costs can be reduced in this way. These also indicate
that the model shown in figure 2 is practical, feasible
CDH and flexible. So that it is significant to research and
CBC develop the software of fully mechanized sub-level
CIP caving production system.
CCR In this paper, we designed an object-oriented analy-
COP sis model of MSCPS. With its applications, the model
CTC CCT CHI was proven technology. Unfortunately, authors have
CSJ CHP not used it in other areas of coal mining, it will be
CST
CSA
much proper to broaden the boundaries of the model
CSC CWF to examine its flexibility. Authors plan to expand the
boundaries of the model to cover other areas and make
CPS it modularized to be integrated to other software. It
is also aimed to improve the model with adding a
CEE user-friendly interface.
CEF

CHF REFERENCES

Figure 2. Object-oriented analysis model of the fully mech-
anized sub-level caving production system.
object-oriented reliability simulation software to
simulate the conditions of the MSCPS. Although
attributes and services analyzed in the model are dif-
ferent with those described in Figure 2 to some extent,
the model in Figure 2 is constructed by the object-
oriented method. It is easy to be extended or changed.
In this case only the attributes and services of the
“part” need to be revised. Taking CCM as exam-
ple, other parts will not be discussed into details
one by one: m_workcount(work counts of mining
machinery), m_brkcount(counts of mining machin-
ery breakdown), m_ladd(added length of mining),
m_tadd(added work time of mining machinery) etc.
The attributes are added in the CCM class. If the ser-
vices are changed, the code modification is needed
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