ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,709,982, issued on Aug. 18, was assigned to Joy Global Underground Mining LLC (Warrendale, Pa.).
"System and method for controlling roof support" was invented by Keith Dodgson (Burnley, Great Britain) and Mark Brocklehurst (Warrington, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system for controlling a roof support, including a canopy for engaging a mine surface, includes a sensor configured to generate a signal indicative of a position of an end of the canopy, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive the signal and determine whether a portion of a mining machine will contact a portion of the canopy based on the sign...