White Papers

Post-Disaster, Underground Communication

There is a wide array of equipment currently employed in tunnels and mines, to allow underground personnel to talk to each other and to the surface. This includes:

Wired Equipment

• Telephones
• Public Address
• Loudspeaker

Fibre-optic Equipment

• Ethernet VoIP
• Multiplexed Baseband Audio

RF Equipment

• Distributed Antenna
• Leaky Feeder
• Node (Mesh)

These technologies all have their benefits and find use in different applications. However, they all have one major weakness, their method of communicating with the surface.

DESIGN OF WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK FOR MINE SAFETY MONITORING

The recent emergence of the sensor networks technology is significantly impacting the capabilities for automated distributed monitoring of environments. The low manufacturing cost of sensors, increased coverage and accuracy in distributed sensing due to their large deployments and their ability to operate in inhospitable terrains has made them an amenable technology for various surveillance and monitoring applications In this paper we evaluate the performance of wireless sensor network technology for underground mine’s safety monitoring. The system is mainly composed of static ZigBee nodes, which are deployed on the underground mine galleries for measuring underground mine parameters such as ambient temperature, fire detection, humidity, level of carbon monoxides etc. The main characteristic of the networks such as the throughput, the received data rate, latency have been evaluated.

Wireless Sensor Networks in Underground Mines

Following tragic events in many underground mines such as those at the Darby, Alma and Sago coal mines, the need for reliable communications systems in underground mines became evident. These incidents triggered the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006 in the United States. The most important aspect of the MINER Act is providing reliable communication for miners before and after tragic incidents. Reliable communication has always been a challenge in underground mines due to changing topologies and the harsh environment. In addition, disasters disable electricity and communications cables, block tunnels and cause fire. These may damage the communication infrastructure which hampers rescue efforts and endangering lives. Therefore, durable wireless solutions using advanced communication and sensor network technologies have been investigated to provide reliable communications in underground mines.