Abstract
Underground mining production process is vulnerable and highly dynamic in nature. Among the various causes of accidents in underground mine, major one is presence of flammable and noxious gases. Though many existing safety gadgets are there but they could not work reliably because of the typical nature of mines structure and production variability. Wireless data and communication network is also not successful because wireless communication in underground mine is significantly more challenging than through air. This work introduces the application of mobile wireless sensor network in order to monitor a variety of parameters in underground mines which have life threatening effects towards them. Each node of the network placed over the safety gear (helmet wore statutorily by every miner) comprises of various sensors depending on the requirement with microcontroller unit and other low power accessories. The proposed work has a unique feature that it will make the personnel aware about the situation of the gases present and surrounding by automatically generating different alarms and different light indicators. Other function of this device will be to transmit the data sensed by the sensors in the device to the control room wirelessly so that the responsible person would be aware of the situation. This work is focused on the design of such a prototype model for the underground mines with the aforementioned specification.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdellah, C., Paul, F., & Pierre, M. T. (2007). Security monitoring using wireless sensor networks. In Proceedings of the fifth annual conference on communication networks and services research (CNSR ‘07) (pp. 13–17). https://doi.org/10.1109/cnsr.2007.58.
Yogendra, S. D., Tanmoy, M., Das, P. S., & Paul, P. S. (2015). Wireless communication and environment monitoring in underground coal mines—Review. IETE Technical Review, 32, 140–150.
Xiaodong, W., Xiaoguang, Z., Zize, L., & Min, T. (2007). Deploying a wireless sensor network on the coal mines. In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE international conference on networking sensing and control, London UK (pp. 324–328).
Tanmoy, M., Partha Sarathi, D., & Mithu, M. (2012). A wireless surveillance and safety system for mine workers based on Zigbee. In 1st international conference on recent advances in information technology RAIT (pp. 148–151). https://doi.org/10.1109/RAIT.2012.6194496.
Ashutosh, P., Abhijit, N., & Jayanthu, S. (2013). Wireless communication systems underground mines—A critical appraisal. International Journal of Engineering Trends, Technology (IJETT), 4(7), 3149–3153.
Aruino UNO. https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/arduinoBoardUNO. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Hanwei Electronics Co. Ltd. Technical data mq-4 gas sensor, https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/Biometric/MQ-4.pdf. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Hanwei Electronics Co Ltd. Technical data mq7 gas sensor, http://www.datasheetspdf.com/datasheet/download.php?id=694312. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Acknowledgements
The work presented here is financially supported by the research project entitled ‘Development of an Intelligent Helmet for safety and communication of underground Miners’ sponsored by Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sharma, M., Maity, T. Low Cost Low Power Smart Helmet for Real-Time Remote Underground Mine Environment Monitoring. Wireless Pers Commun 102, 149–162 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-018-5831-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-018-5831-1