Coal mine monitoring system using Zigbee

Abstract

Today safety of miners is a major challenge. Miner’s health and life is vulnerable to several critical issues, which includes not only the working environment, but also the after effect of it. Mining activities release harmful and toxic gases in turn exposing the associated workers into the danger of survival. This puts a lot of pressure on the mining industry. To increase the productivity and reduce the cost of mining along with consideration of the safety of workers, an innovative approach is required. Miner’s health is in danger mainly because of the toxic gases which are very often released in underground mines. These gases cannot be detected easily by human senses. This project investigates the presence of toxic gases in critical regions and their effects on miners. A real time monitoring system using wireless sensor network, which includes multiple sensors, is developed. This system monitors surrounding environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and multiple toxic gases. This system also provides an early warning, which will be helpful to all miners present inside the mine to save their life before any casualty occurs. The system uses ZigBee technology to establish wireless sensor network. It is wireless networking standard IEEE 802.15.4, which is suitable for operation in harsh environment.