Low Cost Low Power Smart Helmet for Real-Time Remote Underground Mine Environment Monitoring

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.