Assessing Visibility from Underground Coal Mining Equipment

Abstract

A task analytic approach was used to define information requirements and visual features which served as sources of information for operations of continuous miners, shuttle cars and scoops. Information requirements were prioritized and the location of visual features determined. From this analysis, visual attention locations, containing one or more important visual features, were identified. A procedure was developed for assessing whether operators in existing machines could be expected to see the visual attention locations. The procedure makes use of a Human Eye Reference Measurement Instrument (HERMI) designed for this project and an outside-in photographic procedure.