Integrated Sensing Systems for Surface Mining
Safety (MINESYS)
The objective
of this research project is to develop and deploy an integrated safety system
to help reduce equipment-related fatal and non-fatal injuries in US surface mining operations.
Specific aims in this project were to (i) design a sensor network system geared
towards surface mining safety; (ii) establish an infrastructure communication
platform for real-time situational awareness; (iii) develop a non-distractive graphical
user interface (GUI) for equipment operators/drivers; and (iv) educate and
train a new generation of professionals who will be working on surface mining
safety research (e.g. capacity building).
The following
contributions have been made thus far.
I.
Sensing
systems
(i)
A zone-based proximity warning
system was designed using low power IEEE 802.15.4 radios for detecting
obstacles and vehicles at much smaller distances (< 10m), and marking them
into zones around the vehicle.
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(ii)
For timely warning about
approaching vehicles at large distances (10-50m), a GPS system was integrated
with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11a/b/p) radios in an ad-hoc
mode. The use of a peer to peer ad-hoc
mode avoids the need for centralized network infrastructure such as
cellular systems and instead information about approaching vehicles is known as
soon as they come into communication range of each other.
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(i)
A novel fatigue monitoring system
was designed using light-weight, commercially available brain sensing headbands
(specifically, MUSE). Using this headband, blinks can be accurately determined,
which can then be converted to PERCLOS and fatigue detection
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II.
Communication
systems
(i)
To support the wi-fi based GPS
warning system, a communication range test was performed in an actual surface
mine setting to characterize the distances at which warning can be reliably
received using each of the IEEE 802.11 family of radios.
(ii)
A cloud-based logging framework (named
MapMyTruck) was designed that can be
used for long term data collection from
GPS and other sensors, thus improving surface mine safety.
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III.
Non
distractive Graphical user interface
(i)
A unified GUI was developed for
the integration and meaningful presentation of the information acquired from
the different sensor network components.
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(ii)
The GUI was built with a novel dynamic
marker capability that allows drivers to tag observed road conditions at run
time on the GUI and then advertise this to other drivers using an ad-hoc WiFi
network.
(iii)
An automated GUI evaluation tool
was developed using a camera based driver activity monitoring system that analyzes
distractions experienced by a driver, especially with respect to usage of
consoles and GUI during operation.
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Much of the
data for developing and testing these prototype systems was done in
collaboration in an actual surface mine setting. Multiple graduate students
were provided interdisciplinary education and hands-on training.
Collaborators:
Vlad
Kecojevic (Mining Engineering, PI), Ashish Nimbarte (Industrial Engineering)