Today, millions of tons of coil remain in the subsoil and are written off as losses. These include hard-to-recover reserves unfit for mining with traditional high-performance means of integrated mechanization. One of the all-purpose technical solutions to the problem of developing such reserves can be technologies using robotic mobile mining equipment based on a heading-and-winning machine and a self-propelled car. 

Flowcharts for coal deposit development have been designed for seams unfit for mining with integrated mechanization means (medium thick seams, thick seams, flat and steeply inclined seams). These include open-pit and underground mining of marginal reserves from the side of the pit wall and limited reserves from the daytime surface performed by mobile mechanization means. During the operation of these means, the following process operations are repeated: coal breaking, loading into a self-propelled car, transportation along a preset trajectory, unloading into a reloader or other transport vehicle, or a warehouse on the bench. These operations can be robotized, which will increase both the safety and efficiency of coal mining. 

In order to perform coal-mining operations without constant attendance of maintenance staff, the existing mechanization means must be retrofitted with machine vision and a remote control system. Moreover, a robotized control system for the set of equipment must be developed to resolve the following problems. For the heading-and-winning machine: transportation (feed) along a straight line; transportation along the preset curve (formation of a diagonal entry); coal breaking at the preset thickness; coal breaking within coal-rock boundaries or along a preset cross-sectional contour; loading of broken coal into a self-propelled car; and control of the car loading level. For a self-propelled car: transportation along a preset trajectory from the loading point to the unloading point; control and management of the completeness of loading (unloading).