Huawei recently announced the successful integration of 5G+AI in its special operating system for mines; now this integrated operating system (OS) can facilitate large-scale commercial use.

MineHarmony OS is a joint innovation by Huawei and China Energy Investment Corporation. The system has been deployed on 3,300 sets of equipment in 13 mines and one coal washery.

In particular, the system has been deployed throughout the entire Wulanmulun (also known as Ulan Moran) Mine in Inner Mongolia, where significant progress has been made in connectivity, interface, and data access.

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"The operating system covers a multitude of innovative scenarios, including smart control of equipment, the auto patrol of fixed sites, and online upgrade of equipment, the time for which has been shortened from one day to just four minutes," Huawei said in a media statement.

On the way to digitalisation and smart mining transformation, the first challenge for any mine is establishing the interconnectivity and interoperability of equipment and inaccessibility of data. The key to this is to find the most suitable network technologies.

"MineHarmony not only provides unified protocols for different equipment but also simplifies operations with unattended inspections. Also, 5G+AI video stitching technologies have enabled remote and precise control of mining machines, which in turn allows people working in offices to remotely control underground operations, thereby improving their work environment as well as mining safety," Huawei said.

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"It can ensure 24/7 intelligent monitoring, in addition to cutting the number of underground inspection personnel by 20 percent."

Underground coal mines are fitted with all kinds of devices and equipment running on different protocols, and finding a way to connect them all is a major challenge. So, the Huawei Mine Team and China Energy teamed up with over 30 partners to develop MineHarmony, "the first Internet of Things operating system in the mining sector, in just three months."