Coal news and updates

Huawei Launches Industrial Operating System for Coal Mines

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. launched an operating system Tuesday for National Energy Group specifically designed for the coal mining industry to replace the Linux, Unix and Windows operating systems currently in use on mining equipment.

The new operating system, named Kuanghong in Chinese, is based on Huawei’s in-house HarmonyOS and is the first customized operating system developed by Huawei for industrial application.

The Kuanghong operating system adds more features, including a unified data protocol, which enables all underground mining equipment to use a single interface to transmit and gather data for analysis. The system is compatible with nearly 400 types of equipment used in coal mines.

“This is a major technological revolution of the industry, which will minimize high-risk jobs, prevent workers from encountering disasters, free underground workers from heavy labor, and significantly improve the underground work environment,” said Zhou Dechang, deputy director of the National Mine Safety Administration, at a press conference.

The background: The coal mining software is one of the industrial internet projects that Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has emphasized. In February Huawei opened a new lab in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan aiming to bringing innovative technology to the mining industry. Ren said Huawei’s intelligence systems could help coal mining companies reduce the number of surface workers by 60% and underground miners by 10%–20% each shift.

As part of its business response to crippling U.S. sanctions, Huawei developed its own Harmony operating system. The company reported Monday that users of HarmonyOS topped 100 million and that more than 1,000 hardware companies and 1.3 million developers have participated in building up the HarmonyOS ecosystem.