# Cutting Path Planning Technology of Shearer Based on Virtual Reality
## 1 Introduction  
With the advent of Industry 4.0 and Internet Plus, new concepts such as smart mine and digital mine have been continuously proposed. Cloud computing, mixed reality, big data, Internet of Things, and information physics systems have gradually merged with modern industries [1]. Consequently, coal-mining equipment has been continuously transformed into automated, intelligent, and unmanned equipment [2]. Virtual reality is a technology, developed in the 20 th century, which involves a computer, electronic information, and simulation technology. Its basic implementation method is to create a simulated environment by computer technologies so as to give people a sense of environmental immersion [3, 4]. Due to the unique working conditions of the coal production process, its complexity, and uncertainty, most of the traditional simulation tools and simulation methods are used to simulate a certain process or a single device in the production process, and it is difficult to achieve an overall and real effect, the integration of virtual reality technology into the traditional coal-mining field also presents new demands and broad prospects. Combined with the informationfrom the actual production equipment, assembly conditions, geological environment, and operation data, a realistic three-dimensional (3D) scene was constructed to show and simulate the production process of the fully mechanized mining face [5,6]. The shearer is one of the key equipment for the fully mechanized mining face. It is an important technological equipment to achieve high-efficiency intensive coal mining, reduce major malignant accidents in coal mines, and improve the working conditions of the working face. It is, therefore, of great significance to the virtual simulation of the shearer's cutting operations. Several studies on the problems of virtual assembly [7], operation demonstration, and attitude analysis [8, 9, 10] of the shearer in the virtual environment have been carried out. However, most of these studies were carried out under the condition of a horizontal floor. In the real mining process, there are often complex geological conditions such as coal seam dip and undulations in the roof and floor, which leads to the disparity between the equipment operation state presented in the virtual simulation and that in the actual situation. The planning of the cutting path of the shearer is an important means to achieve intelligent coal mining. At present, the researches on the cutting path planning of the shearer are mainly based on the accurate positioning of the shearer to obtain memory cutting [11,12], and automatic adjustment of drum based on intelligent decision-making or coal rock recognition [13]. [PERSON] [14] proposed a hidden Markov model (HMM) memory cutting method for the shearer, which prevented large residual errors and frequent adjustments of the shearer cutting drum. [PERSON] [15] focused on the coal mining process for different variants of the shearer construction and kinematic parameters. [PERSON] [16] proposed an online cutting-pattern recognition method with high accuracy and speed. The cutting sound was collected as the recognition criterion. Although there are many reported studies on the cutting path planning of shearer, those on the demonstration and simulation using virtual reality technology are limited. The 3D coal seam model is an important aspect to study the virtual operation of the shearer under complex geological conditions. With the help of a 3D visualization platform, the spatial geometry of the geological body in the mining area can be described more accurately and comprehensively by the real 3D coal seam model. [PERSON] [17] developed a 3D geological model based on the drilling data using the horizons method. The user-defined profile method was further used to dynamically modify the geological model. [PERSON] [18] proposed a generalized triangular prism (GTP) data model for coal seam modeling to solve the problem of geometric cracks.