Survey of Collision Avoidance Systems for Underground Mines: Sensing Protocols

Abstract

With the growing number of unintentional interactions occurring in underground mines, Collision Avoidance System (CAS) establishment and maintenance has become an urgent need for mining industries to enhance their risk profile and improve construction safety. Usually, most collision accidents can be divided into three different categories in line with the involved participants and infrastructure condition. The accidents pose a great risk of financial cost to mining companies and even cause casualties. In detail, this paper presents an intensive study survey of positioning techniques, including ranging algorithms, to accommodate the demands of various proximity sensors and improve the capability of situational awareness. Then, we exploit the importance of the communication system, prevalent low-power wide-area technologies and related communication protocols. The effectiveness of communication systems decides and facilitates the success of the final integrated system that can be used to fundamentally address the problem of collision avoidance. For the purpose of collaboration between communication systems and other executive departments, a series of systematic comparisons of pertinent technologies and algorithms is given near the end, followed by a brief discussion on the best choice among these options. In the proposed solution, the overall end-to-end delay can be minimised to a few nanoseconds and the localisation accuracy can achieve centimetre level when operating in the range of 100 m.

The Future of Mine Safety: A Comprehensive Review of Anti-Collision Systems Based on Computer Vision in Underground Mines

“…In this section, we propose several ideas to improve the performance and accuracy of existing collision avoidance systems using computer vision techniques. Connected mines [12][13][14]121,122] can be equipped with smart sensors that can monitor the environment and send real-time alerts to miners in case of danger. Cloud computing [123,124] can be used to store and analyze data collected by sensors, allowing anti-collision systems to benefit from additional computing power to improve accuracy and responsiveness.…”

Efectividad de las pausas activas en la mejora del ambiente laboral en la pequeña minería [Effectiveness of active breaks in improving the working environment in small-scale mining]

“…La seguridad y la salud ocupacional de los trabajadores en empresas mineras en la actualidad se fundamenta en identificar los riesgos y proponer medidas de mitigación, en caso de la minería subterránea el ambiente laboral presenta mayores riesgos en comparación con otras industrias, a lo largo de la historia se ha conocido varios accidentes. Los trabajadores mineros se encuentran sometidos a un ambiente laboral que puede provocar enfermedades ocupacionales, como enfermedades respiratorias debido a la exposición al polvo o sustancias químicas, enfermedades músculo-esqueléticas debido a la realización de tareas físicas pesadas y enfermedades relacionadas con el ruido y las vibraciones (Hermoza, 2016), (Qian, et al 2022), (Wang, et al 2024).…”