3rd Int'l Conf.

on Recent Advances in Information Technology I RAIT-2016I

Smart Low Power Wireless Sensor Network for

Underground Mine Environment Monitoring

yogendra Singh Dohare Tanmoy Maity P. S. Paul Hanuman Prasad

Electrical Engg. Dept. Mining Machinery Engg. Dept. Mining Engineering MME Department
I S M Dhanbad I S M Dhanbad I S M Dhanbad I S M Dhanbad
yogendradohare@yahoo.com tanmoy_maity@yahoo.com partha_sp99@yahoo.com hpshukla271@gmai1.com

Abstract- Underground mines are more hazardous in
nature and contain unsafe zones for their workers. There is the
need to develop an effective, secure, reliable and low cost
surveillance and safety system in underground mines. This
paper presents a low cost, low power
underground mine environment monitoring system, developed
by using the ZigBee protocols based wireless data transfer
system. The system includes a small board integrating all
sensors designed for monitoring the
environment. Suitable firmware is developed for secure and
reliable wireless data transfer from the sensor network. Data,
transferred through routers and coordinator is received by
data management & acquisition software, developed for the
purpose. This helps in displaying the real-time data in tabular
and graphical forms as well as for alarm generation in case of
exceeding the limits. The whole system is tested in a model
mine successfully.
Keywords-Wireless Sensor Network,
Underground mines.
I. INTRODUCTION
The mining industry faces numerous challenges related to
health and safety, supply and demand for materials, and the
ability to attract skilled workers. As such, the industry is
constantly looking for new methods to increase worker
safety, increase production volume and reduce operating
costs. Thus, the mining industry has invested a great deal of
time and money to develop safety procedures and training to
assure the health of their miners. Most of the accidents have
occurred in underground mines are landslides,
breakage, gas explosion, fire explosion, roof collapses, and
suffocations etc. These hazards pose a serious problem of
managing safety and health risks to mine workers. In the
interests of mine safety and productivity, it is vital that
operators are continuously aware of underground conditions
and risk profiles. Safety in underground mines
continuous attention of parameters such as temperature,
humidity, airflow and some noxious gases (i.e. CH4, CO,
CO2, H2 S and others) that are produced during various
mining operations [1]. Sensors help in maintaining
and healthy environment in the underground mines by
continuous monitoring of noxious gases [2]. There is the
need to locate and communicate with mine workers at all
times, particularly in the event of fires, roof falls or other
life-threatening situations. Safety in the working condition
encourages for more productivity and self confidence among
the workers.
Mine data communication is mainly possible through the
mobile wireless use of three different techniques such as through-the-wire
(TTW), through-the-air (TT A), and through-the-earth (TTE).
Wire line communication system that exist today in most of
the mines, has several limitations such as possibility of
underground wire!cable breakage and sparks or flames, etc. There is a
need to develop an online wireless network system to quickly
detect the environment conditions and accurately provide
location references to evacuate workers from the dangerous
zone. But, the continuously changing underground mine,
especially coal mines infrastructure possesses a number of
inherent challenges in wireless communication [3]. There is
no time-tested research available in literature that has been
successfully implemented in underground mines except some
discrete hand-held devices or laboratory based small
ZigBee, and
developments [4]. The underground mine environment
creates unique challenges, in that equipment used in
hazardous areas must be explosion-proof or intrinsically safe,
limiting the alternatives for communication and tracking
systems. The unique nature of the underground mine
environment creates other impediments to new technology.
Tight quarters and solid rock and coal barriers make signal
propagation difficult. Mine operations are also dynamic and
unpredictable, making it difficult to determine how installed
systems will perform, and true performance may only be
understood after systems are installed.
In last two decades, there is a tremendous development in
water
communication technology, especially in the area of wireless
transmission of data. ZigBee wireless communication
protocols has provided specifications for devices that have
low power, low data rates, and are thus characterized by long
battery life. With the development of wireless sensor
network, distributed sensor network based on agent has been
requires
raised [5]. Wireless Sensor networks using this protocol have
been used in various applications for monitoring and
detecting sensitive parameters in the environment [6] [7].
safe A wireless system is not a single device, but a collection
of devices which operate interdependently. Wireless sensor
network is a self configured network being composed of a
large number of sensors. Proposed low power wireless
underground mine environment monitoring system is
developed using low power ZigBee wireless sensor network.

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 3rd Int'l Conf. on Recent Advances in Information Technology I RAIT-2016I

The wireless communication system consists of RF data
collectors, routers and coordinator. Texas Instruments make
CC2530 based ZigBee development boards are used to
develop the data collectors devices, routers and coordinator
for the proposed system. The complete system is divided
mainly into three parts:
• Application specific sensor board
• Low power wireless data communication system
• Data acquisition and management
These are specifically designed to measure environment
with much higher gas concentration [8]. Director General of
Mines Safety (DGMS) in India provides guidelines for
precautions against inflammable and noxious gases in India.
For the purposes of this regulation, inflammable gas shall be
deemed to have been found or detected [9]. Table I
represents the recommended threshold level of underground
mine gases notified by DGMS in India. Semiconductor
based resistive, capacitive or impedimetric devices are also
cost-effective and a good choice for gas sensors [10].

A layout plan of the proposed system is shown in fig 1, TABLE I. THRESHOLD LEVEL OF MINE GASES
where E"s represent data collector boards, R"s are routers

I
S.N. MinesGas Threshold level
and is the coordinator for the wireless network.
C
I Percent ppm
l. Oxygen 19 1900000

2. Carbon 0.5 5000

Dioxide
3. Carbon 0.005 50
S e -- monoxide
R2
Jlder ouiid 4. Methane a) 1.25 (in general 12500
• body of the air
.t b) 0.75 (in main 7500
return ailWay
'R3.

Based on the availability and suitability, methane sensor

(TGS2611), CO sensor (TGS2422), CO2 sensor (TGS4161),
O2 sensor (KE-50) and temperature & humidity module
(RHI-llOA) are selected. Specific features of selected
sensors are listed in a table II.

Fig.l. Proposed layout of the system

TABLE II. SPECIFIC FEATURES OF SELECTED SENSORS
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. S.N. Sensor Name Features
Section II presents the work done to develop a complete low Methane Sensor High sensitive and selective to
l. (TGS26 I 1) methane gas
cost, low power, small size, compact sensor board suitable
Low power consumption, Heater
for use in underground mines of all types. Miniature gas
voltage (VH) & Supply voltage
sensors are selected for mine environment with temperature, (Vs):
humidity sensors. All individual sensors are configured in a CO Sensor 5V, Load Resistance (Rd
single printed circuit board. Section III describes the 2. (TGS2442) >IOKn
:,sOllO electrolyte type sensor,
firmware developed for ZigBee based sensor network for f02 sens�r Lmear
secure wireless data transfer, flexible or extendable network 3. TGS4161 sensitive characteristic.
Galvanic cell type sensor, Nc
and strong coverage. In section IV, it describes the approach 02 Sensor external
and design of software for the purpose of displaying the 4. (KE-50) power supply
received data from underground. Section V presents
validation of working of the developed system by using it in
Individual testing and calibration of sensors are
a model Longwall mine. Section VI is the conclusion of this
performed in the laboratory in order to understand the
paper.
sensor characteristics and sensitivity toward the target

II. DESIGN OF MINE SEN SOR BOARD gases. All gases used in the calibration are certified to a

In underground mines, especially in coal mines, there are

tolerance of < 5 % deviation from the stated concentration.
For the calibration purpose, recommended gas cylinders
various types of explosive and noxious gases present. The
with regulated concentration are used.
whole mine environment is affected due to release or
All sensors are integrated in a compact small size single
produce of those gases. If concentration level of noxious or
board called as sensor board. The PCB layout is designed
explosive gases exceeds the safe limit, it suddenly creates
using PCB wizard design software. View of the designed
unsafe situation. Electrochemical and solid state gas sensors
PCB picture of the fabricated PCB are shown in fig 2.
have very long life expectancy - typically 10 years or more
Microcontroller is used to generate one second pulse, used
and provide features with less expensive and small size
as a power source in CO sensor. This is also used to locally
options.
store all the data collected against time. The additional

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 3rd Int'l Conf. on Recent Advances in Information Technology I RAIT-2016I

circuit is also incorporated in the design to satisfy the ( OS",,·, )

I
intrinsic safe regulatory requirement. Zener diodes are used
to regulate voltage level and a resistor is used to regulate the
current. This finally limits the energy within an acceptable
range. Moreover, the maximum voltage level used for the
circuit is +5 V DC which is well below the maximum
recommended value of 25 V in underground mine.

Start OSAL Systc.n

Fig. 4. Flowchart for STACK main functions

In order to develop stack and organize files by using an

IAR IDE (integrated development environment), there all
the tools like a C/C++ compiler, an assembler, a linker,
Fig. 2. Picture of complete sensor board
library tools, an editor, a project manager, and the IAR C­
Spy® debugger are integrated. Stack development
procedure algorithm is developed according to mine
III. FIRMWARE DEVELOPMENT
environment monitoring parameters separately for
ZigBee is an innovative wireless protocol and standard coordinator, router and sensor applications. All functions of
that defines a stack protocol allowing the interoperability of the stack are initialized in a flowchart function presented as
devices in a low cost, low power supply, low power fig 4.
consumption and low data transmission rate wireless sensor
network. This is suitable for secure, flexible and reliable
data transmission in hazardous area like underground mines. IV. DATA ACQIUSITION AND MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

ZigBee protocols and standard are defined to the The data acquisition and management (DAM) software
Application Layer (APL) and Network Layer (NWL). Just works as the central processing core for the entire wireless
below of those are Medium Access Control (MAC) layer sensor network in underground mines. Through serial
and Physical layer (PHY) which are described under communication via coordinator, DAM Software receives
IEE802.15.4 standards [13]. Stack or firmware is developed data from wireless sensor network and improves monitoring
to form a wireless sensor network for real-time environment and decision making ability. DAM software represents the
monitoring of underground mines following these steps: measured data in tabular and graphical form online and at
• Wireless real-time monitoring of mine parameters are the same time data is stored in the database.
described in the Application layer by application Data acquisition and management software is designed
programming interface (API); for Microsoft windows-7 operating system. It is web based
• All supporting hardware drivers" functions are defined and oftline software developed by using the ASP.NET
initialized by API in the hardware abstraction layer (HAL); framework. This software is developed for real-time
• MAC configuration" is configured in the MAC layer; environment monitoring of gaseous parameters, temperature
• Network topology and device address functions are and humidity in underground mines through low power
defined by API in the NWK layer; wireless sensor network. It is also extendable for any other

• Task and event scheduling function is explained in the
operating system abstraction layer (OSAL);
• ZigBee device function is explained in zigbee device
object (ZDO) layer;
parameters to read and store. There are number of menu
options created on the toolbar like File, Configuration,
View, Reports and Help. Under the Configuration menu in
toolbar the pop up window has options like DEFINE

• Sequence of stack operations is arranged in the "Zmain" SENSOR, ROUTER, LOCATION, MANAGE

function; CONTACTS, ALARM NOTIFICATION. Fig 5 shows the

screenshot of window open under Alarm notification sub­
menu.

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 3rd Int'l Conf. on Recent Advances in Information Technology I RAIT-2016I

The percentages of these gases in the model gallery were

measured at three different locations also by a calibrated
multi gas detector. The comparative chart of readings is
presented in the table III.

u u

TABLE ill. COMPARISON OF RECORDED DATA

.. Ii

Percentages of different
Percentages of gases
different measured
Face gases measured using a using
Locations multil!as detector developed s) stem
02 02 CH4 CO2
(0/;) (;p'!:) (;.?�) (0/;) (PPM) (ppm)
Fig. 5. Under the Configuration section Alarm notification option window In the tail
open gate side 20.4 2490 3165 20.7 2524 3188

In the
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS middle of
the face 20.6 2794 3785 20.8 2827 3812
Data acquisition and management software is developed
for the visualizing or displaying of real-time mine
environmental data which is captured through developed
In the
wireless sensor network. DAM software is installed in main gate
computer that plays a role as server for the wireless sensor side 20.5 1993 2990 20.5 2017 3019
network through coordinator. A demonstration of the
developed system is conducted for real-time environment
monitoring in a model Longwall mine at Indian School of Again, for the validation of the real-time monitoring

Mines, Dhanbad, India. The longwall model gallery is graphical window, the C02 concentration level is varied

equipped with powered supports, shearer, AFC,
loader, power pack, etc. This longwall model gallery
provides the right angle bends that are necessary to test the
performance of data transmission from sensor devices
located on the mine-face to the coordinator device located
near the main gate through routers located in the comer.
Sensor devices are placed at the different locations in the
mine. Photographs of the demonstration in the mine gallery,
taken from different positions are shown in the fig 6.
stage suddenly and deliberately through spraying C02 gas from
the gas cylinder at a particular instant. Observation to the
variation of C02 concentration is recorded and the graphical
window is shown in fig 7. Moreover, in case of the
parameters exceeding the set limits (preset through the
"Alarm Noticification" option of the software) the alarmed
data indicate color change with a flashing message in the
screen.
..,,-­
",.

�-----

...

,
! .
",.

Fig. 6. Mine picture to observe real-time data in computer through the

developed system Fig. 7. Captured graph of C02 concentration level

Data is received through wireless sensor network

VI. CONCLUSION
coordinator device connected to a laptop through serial
communication cable. Data is displayed continuously in the This paper has described the work on development of
specific windows of the data acquisition and management smart low power wireless underground mine environment
software. To fulfill the above objectives, the environment of monitoring system that helps in productivity and safety
the model gallery is altered with injection of 02, CH 4, C02. enhancement III underground mines. The whole

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 3rd Int'l Conf. on Recent Advances in Information Technology I RAIT-2016I

development comprises of an integrated hardware system, sensors in underground coal mines and hazardous area," International
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The Integrated sensor board is developed with the required and Evaluation of a Wireless Sensor Network for Mine Safety
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Monitoring," IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference
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[6] Wu Li Song, Jing Qiao,"Research of Mine-shaft Wireless Sensor
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[7] M. Varchola, M. Drutarovsky, "ZigBee Based Home Automation
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Wireless Sensor Network," Acta Electrotechnica et Informatica, Vol.
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