Lightweight design of temporary support device of rectangular shield for the robot system of coal mine roadway excavation

Owing to the existing problems of the temporary shield support device in a coal mine, such as considerable component weight, difficult disassembly, and large chamber installation, the design of the temporary rectangular shield support device was optimized. A module division method combining the functional analysis method and a similar feature clustering method was proposed, which completes the division of the functional module and establishes the structural module. A structural optimization method of "variable density topology optimization, parameter sensitivity analysis and Optimal Space-Filling Design (OSF)" was proposed. A variable-density topology optimization model of the device was established using the variable-density topology optimization method. The key variables of the device were determined using a parameter sensitivity analysis. The sample points of the critical variables were generated using the optimal space-filling design method, the approximate response surface models of mass, displacement, and stress were constructed, and the optimal solution of the device's weight was obtained under the constraint conditions of pressure and displacement. A lightweight matching method of modularization based on transportability, disassembly, maintainability, and reliability was proposed, and the optimal matching scheme for the volume and mass of the device was determined. As a result, the weight of the temporary shield support device was reduced by 11.2%, and the maximum stress was reduced by 13.4%, under the premise of ensuring reliability. It realizes the convenience of transportation and high efficiency of assembly and disassembly in different design requirements, which is of great significance to accelerate the intelligent construction of coal mine.