Induced polarization (IP) is the primary method used for the exploration of various metal minerals and for groundwater prospecting. The function and performance of IP instruments have significantly improved over the years; however, most instruments still have some shortcomings, such as limited data acquisition accuracy, large size, separate transmitter and receiver, complex human-computer interaction, difficult networking and remote monitoring. In this study, a novel multifunctional IP instrument system is developed based on remote wireless communication technology, which has high data acquisition accuracy, small size, lightweight, flexible and diverse functions (single instrument can realize transmission and reception), remote wireless real-time monitoring, and convenient networking of multiple instruments. We independently designed a high-precision data acquisition circuit with a noise floor of 0.29 µV and a 5-fold increase in acquisition accuracy. With an intelligent power module as its core, the designed transmitter has a maximum output power of 6 kW and can transmit stepped waves and rectangular waves of various frequencies and duty cycles. We also developed a host computer program on an Android mobile terminal based on Java, which allows users to wirelessly control the instrument through mobile phones over Wi-Fi networks. In addition, we introduced the Internet of Things technology in geophysical instruments and designed a real-time remote monitoring system for data quality and multiple instruments networking scheme based on the short message service of the BeiDou navigation satellite system and cloud service platform. Multiple tests revealed that the proposed instrument meets the requirements of field exploration. INDEX TERMS Cloud service platform, data acquisition, induced polarization instrument, Wi-Fi communication.

Traditional geophysical prospecting instruments cannot fulfill the requirements of deep energy prospecting. The instruments that measure single physical quantities, such as seismic and electrical instruments, have certain limitations. Moreover, the time period required for traditional instruments to collect, acquire, and process data is too long. To address these issues, a hybrid seismic-electrical data acquisition system based on cloud technology and green IoT was proposed and developed. A seismic analog acquisition circuit and an electrical analog acquisition circuit were designed, and the control module was designed and debugged. The system is equipped with a wireless module connected to a wireless-to-4G/5G module, which uploads the data collected by the hybrid seismic-electrical data acquisition station to the cloud platform. The background master control center completes the rapid processing of geophysical data using the robust storage and computing capabilities of the cloud. Meanwhile, it sends control commands to the cloud to control the acquisition system. This system has completed simultaneous prospecting of multiple physical quantities and achieved rapid monitoring through cloud technology. Finally, the system was used to perform fracture monitoring and a comparison of two mines in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province. The monitoring results were satisfactory. Thus, the presented system can play a role in seismic-electrical prospecting, and can be applied to actual engineering endeavors quickly and reliably. INDEX TERMS 4G/5G, cloud platform, geophysics, hybrid seismic-electrical,green IoT.

In the past few decades, with the continuous advancement of technology, seismic and electrical instruments have developed rapidly. However, complex and harsh exploration environments led to higher requirements and severe challenges for traditional geophysical exploration methods and instruments. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to develop new high-precision exploration instruments and data acquisition systems. In this study, a new distributed seismic and electrical hybrid acquisition station is developed using system-on-a-programmable-chip (SoPC) technology. The acquisition station hardware includes an analog board and a main control board. The analog board uses a signal conditioning circuit and a 24-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADS1271) to achieve high-precision data acquisition, while the main control board uses a low-power SoPC to enable high-speed stable data transmission. We designed the data transmission protocol for the acquisition station and developed independently an improved low-voltage differential signaling data transmission technology. What's more, a method to enhance the precision of synchronous acquisition was studied in depth. These key technologies, which were developed for the acquisition station, were integrated into the SoPC of the main control board. Test results indicate that the synchronization precision of the acquisition station is better than 200 ns, and the maximum low-power data transmission speed is 16 Mbps along a 55 m cable. The developed acquisition station has the advantages of low noise, large dynamic range, low power consumption, etc., and it can achieve highprecision hybrid acquisition of seismic and electrical data.

Abstract. Seismic exploration equipment has developed rapidly over the past few decades. One such piece of equipment is a centralized seismograph, which plays an important role in engineering, so improving its performance is of great scientific significance. In this research, the core part of general seismic-data acquisition devices is packaged to develop a centralized seismic-data acquisition system (named CUGB-CS48DAS) that has independent operating ability and high scalability, which can be used for seismic exploration in various engineering uses. Furthermore, by extending and modifying the acquisition circuit and corresponding software, the function of electrical method data acquisition has also been achieved. Thus, the proposed CUGB-CS48DAS makes it possible for joint exploration of seismic and electrical data in a single acquisition station, which is implicitly of great convenience in engineering prospecting as well as a solution to reduce the ambiguity problem. The low power-consumption computer of the system comprises a 24 bit Σ modulation A/D converter and 48 sampling channels with an optional sampling rate of 50 Hz to 64 kHz. With regard to the host computer, the architecture of the control software is smart, and it can integrate the multiple functions of data acquisition, preprocessing, and self-testing. To complete the networking ability and remote monitoring of this proposed system, the technology of the narrow-band internet of things (NB-IoT) was introduced and tested. Field experiments were implemented to prove that the system is stable and convenient to use, and the performance could meet the demand of high-precision joint exploration.

Abstract. In the past few decades, with the continuous advancement of technology, seismic-electrical instruments have developed rapidly. However, complex and harsh exploration environments have put forward higher requirements and severe challenges for traditional geophysical exploration methods and instruments. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to develop new high-precision exploration instruments and data acquisition systems. In this study, a new distributed seismic-electrical hybrid acquisition station is developed using system-on-a-programmable-chip (SoPC) technology. The acquisition station hardware includes an analog board and a main control board. The analog board uses a signal conditioning circuit and a 24-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADS1271) to achieve high-precision data acquisition, while the main control board uses a low-power SoPC chip to enable high-speed stable data transmission. Moreover, the data transmission protocol for the acquisition station was designed, an improved low-voltage differential signaling data transmission technology was independently developed, and a method to enhance the precision of synchronous acquisition was studied in depth. These key technologies, which were developed for the acquisition station, were integrated into the SoPC of the main control board. Testing results indicate that the synchronization precision of the acquisition station is better than 200 ns, and the maximum low-power data transmission speed is 16 Mbps along a 55 m cable. Simultaneously, the developed acquisition station has the advantages of low noise, large dynamic range, low power consumption, etc., and it can achieve high-precision hybrid acquisition of seismic-electrical data.