(File photo)

Baidu signed a strategic cooperation agreement on Tuesday to establish a cloud mining project together with Shanxi University and Jingying Technology Co. Ltd.

Shanxi is the center of China's coal industry.

According to the agreement, Shanxi University will delegate research resources along with advanced technologies from Baidu, while Jingying Technology will share their rich experience in serving 2,000 mines.

Baidu will support the Internet of Things and the so-called “ABCs” of technology: artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Cloud Computing.

Three projects will launch during the first stage of the agreement: mine safety inspectors, a smart mine platform, and the Big Data Digging platform. Mine safety inspectors will employ innovative technologies to improve online monitoring, as well as to carry out analysis and for the early detection of potential accidents, aiming to provide service for various mine safety administrations and coal mine enterprises.

The smart mine platform will simulate a digital model of workers and the environment in order to build a self-analysis, self-deciding system. In addition, the data of coal mine enterprises can be searched using Baidu’s AI technology.

This makes possible the idea of a smart mining system.

Business insiders say the cooperation demonstrates the power of Baidu’s cloud technology.

The cooperation is based on new policies by Shanxi that requires big data to be involved in the future development of the coal mining industry, as a way to help the province develop the scientific and technological resources of the coal mining industry.