SMART SENSOR AND TRACKING SYSTEM FOR UNDERGROUND MINING
Date
2016-06-23
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
The thesis predominantly discusses a smart sensor and tracking system for under-
ground mining, as developed by the author. The tracking system is developed by two
steps, the rst of which involves nding an e cient way to measure the distance, and
the second of which involves localizing the positions of each miner in real-time.
For the rst step, a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is used to measure
the distance between two points by indicating the amount of energy lost during the
transmission. Due to environmental and human factors, errors exist when using
RSSI to measure distance. Three methods are taken to reduce the error: Gaussian
distribution, statistical average and preset points. It can be observed that the average
error between actual distance and measured distance is only 0.1145 meters using the
proposed model.
In regards to the localization, the "3-point localization method" is considered rst.
With the proposed method, the result of the localization is improved by 0.6 meters,
as compared to the "2-point localization method".
The transmission method for the project is then discussed. After comparing sev-
eral transmission protocols in the market, ZigBee was chosen for the signal trans-
mission. With the Zigbee protocol, up to 65000 nodes can be connected, which are
suitable for many miners using the system at the same time. The power supply for
the ZigBee protocol is only 1mW for each unit, thus potentially saving a great amount
of energy during the transmission.
To render the tracking system more powerful, two smart sensors are installed:
an MQ-2 sensor and a temperature sensor. The MQ-2 sensor is used to detect the
harmful gas and smoke. In the event that the sensor's detected value is beyond the
threshold, it will provide a warning for the supervisor on the ground.
Description
Keywords
Tracking, Smart Sensor, Underground mining
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Program
Electrical Engineering