scholarly journals Development of an Underground Mine Scout Robot

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lance Molyneaux
Keyword(s):  
Mining Industry ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Mesh Network ◽  
System Level ◽  
Fibre Glass ◽  
Roll Axis ◽  
The University ◽  
Motor Drive System ◽  
Electronic Hardware

<p>Despite increased safety and improved technology in the mining industry, fatal disasters still occur. Robots have the potential to be an invaluable resource for search and rescue teams to scout dangerous or difficult situations. Existing underground mine search and rescue robots have demonstrated limited success. Identified through literature, the two primary concerns are unreliable locomotion systems and a lack of underground mine environment consideration. HADES, an underground mine disaster scout, addresses these issues with a unique chassis and novel locomotion.  A system level design is carried out, addressing the difficulties of underground mine environments. To operate in an explosive atmosphere, a purge and pressurisation system is applied to a fibre glass chassis, with intrinsic safety incorporated into the sensor design. To prevent dust, dirt and water damaging the electronics, ingress protection is applied through sealing. The chassis is invertible, with a low centre of gravity and a roll-axis pivot. This chassis design, in combination with spoked-wheels allows traversal of the debris and rubble of a disaster site. Electrochemical gas sensors are incorporated, along with RGB-D cameras, two-way audio and various other environment sensors. A communication system combining a tether and mesh network is designed, with wireless nodes to increase wireless range and reliability. Electronic hardware and software control are implemented to produce an operational scout robot.  HADES is 0.7 × 0.6 × 0.4 m, with a sealed IP65 chassis. The locomotion system is robust and effective, able to traverse most debris and rubble, as tested on the university grounds and at a clean landfill. Bottoming out is the only problem encountered, but can be avoided by approaching obstacles correctly. The motor drive system is able to drive HADES at walking speed (1.4 m/s) and it provides more torque than traction allows. Six Lithium-Polymer batteries enable 2 hours 28 minutes of continuous operation. At 20 kg and ~$7000, HADES is a portable, inexpensive scout robot for underground mine disasters.</p>

scholarly journals Development of an Underground Mine Scout Robot

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lance Molyneaux
Keyword(s):  
Mining Industry ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Mesh Network ◽  
System Level ◽  
Fibre Glass ◽  
Roll Axis ◽  
The University ◽  
Motor Drive System ◽  
Electronic Hardware

<p>Despite increased safety and improved technology in the mining industry, fatal disasters still occur. Robots have the potential to be an invaluable resource for search and rescue teams to scout dangerous or difficult situations. Existing underground mine search and rescue robots have demonstrated limited success. Identified through literature, the two primary concerns are unreliable locomotion systems and a lack of underground mine environment consideration. HADES, an underground mine disaster scout, addresses these issues with a unique chassis and novel locomotion.  A system level design is carried out, addressing the difficulties of underground mine environments. To operate in an explosive atmosphere, a purge and pressurisation system is applied to a fibre glass chassis, with intrinsic safety incorporated into the sensor design. To prevent dust, dirt and water damaging the electronics, ingress protection is applied through sealing. The chassis is invertible, with a low centre of gravity and a roll-axis pivot. This chassis design, in combination with spoked-wheels allows traversal of the debris and rubble of a disaster site. Electrochemical gas sensors are incorporated, along with RGB-D cameras, two-way audio and various other environment sensors. A communication system combining a tether and mesh network is designed, with wireless nodes to increase wireless range and reliability. Electronic hardware and software control are implemented to produce an operational scout robot.  HADES is 0.7 × 0.6 × 0.4 m, with a sealed IP65 chassis. The locomotion system is robust and effective, able to traverse most debris and rubble, as tested on the university grounds and at a clean landfill. Bottoming out is the only problem encountered, but can be avoided by approaching obstacles correctly. The motor drive system is able to drive HADES at walking speed (1.4 m/s) and it provides more torque than traction allows. Six Lithium-Polymer batteries enable 2 hours 28 minutes of continuous operation. At 20 kg and ~$7000, HADES is a portable, inexpensive scout robot for underground mine disasters.</p>

scholarly journals The Function Design for the Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) System: How to Solve the Problems in the Underground Mine Rail Transportation?

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Haoxuan Yu ◽  
Shuai Li
Keyword(s):  
Mining Industry ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
Underground Mines ◽  
Rail Transportation ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Transportation Equipment ◽  
Train Control ◽  
Function Design ◽  
The Future ◽  
Underground Transportation

With the continuous development of the mining industry, the world’s major mines have gradually entered the intelligent stage. In intelligent underground mines, the operation roads of the underground transportation equipment are very complicated, and the monitoring and control of the underground traffic have become the problems to be solved in the intelligent underground mines. Therefore, on the basis of solving the practical problems of underground mines, the concept paper discusses the possibility of the communication-based train control (CBTC) system being applied to underground mines through the summary and induction of the related literature. As mining engineers, we have proposed the function design for the CBTC system to solve the problems in underground mine rail transportation, but we still need to continue to work hard for the future development of the underground mines. The concept paper serves as a guide to the Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem, and it has implications for the development and the future of underground mine transportation.

scholarly journals Application of UAV in Search and Rescue Actions in Underground Mine—A Specific Sound Detection in Noisy Acoustic Signal

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3725
Author(s):  
Paweł Zimroz ◽  
Paweł Trybała ◽  
Adam Wróblewski ◽  
Mateusz Góralczyk ◽  
Jarosław Szrek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Signal Processing ◽  
Acoustic Signal ◽  
Processing Technique ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Reference Spectrum ◽  
Signal Processing Technique ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Communication Device ◽  
Frequency Representation

The possibility of the application of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in search and rescue activities in a deep underground mine has been investigated. In the presented case study, a UAV is searching for a lost or injured human who is able to call for help but is not able to move or use any communication device. A UAV capturing acoustic data while flying through underground corridors is used. The acoustic signal is very noisy since during the flight the UAV contributes high-energetic emission. The main goal of the paper is to present an automatic signal processing procedure for detection of a specific sound (supposed to contain voice activity) in presence of heavy, time-varying noise from UAV. The proposed acoustic signal processing technique is based on time-frequency representation and Euclidean distance measurement between reference spectrum (UAV noise only) and captured data. As both the UAV and “injured” person were equipped with synchronized microphones during the experiment, validation has been performed. Two experiments carried out in lab conditions, as well as one in an underground mine, provided very satisfactory results.

scholarly journals Explosion risk assessment model for underground mine atmosphere

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianwei Cheng ◽  
Xixi Zhang ◽  
Apurna Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Safety Margin ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Explosion Risk

In the coal mining industry, explosions or mine fires present the most hazardous safety threats for coal miners or mine rescue members. Hence, the determination of the mine atmosphere explosibility and its evolution are critical for the success of mine rescues or controlling the severity of a mine accident. However, although there are numbers of methods which can be used to identify the explosibility, none of them could well indicate the change to the explosion risk time evolution. The reason is that the underground sealed atmospheric compositions are so complicated and their dynamical changes are also affected by various influence factors. There is no one method that could well handle all such considerations. Therefore, accurately knowing the mine atmospheric status is still a complicated problem for mining engineers. Method of analyzing the explosion safety margin for an underground sealed atmosphere is urgently desired. This article is going to propose a series of theoretical explosion risk assessment models to fully analyze the evolution of explosion risk in an underground mine atmosphere. Models are based on characteristics of the Coward explosibility diagram with combining mathematical analyzing approaches to address following problems: (1) for an “not-explosive” atmosphere, judging the evolution of explosion risk and estimating the change-of-state time span from “not-explosive” to “explosive” and (2) for an “explosive” atmosphere, estimating the “critical” time span of moving out of explosive zone and stating the best risk mitigation strategy. Such research efforts could not only help mine operators understand the explosibility risk of a sealed mine atmosphere but also provide a useful tool to wisely control explosive atmosphere away from any dangers. In order to demonstrate research findings, case studies for derived models are shown and are also used to instruct readers how to apply them. The results provide useful information for effectively controlling an explosive underground sealed atmosphere.

Wireless Robotics Networks for Search and Rescue in Underground Mines

2019 ◽  
pp. 286-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alok Ranjan ◽  
H. B. Sahu ◽  
Prasant Misra
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Situation ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Underground Mines ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Wireless Robotics ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Current State ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
Underground Mine Workings

To ensure the safety of miners, reliable and continuous monitoring of underground mine environment plays a significant role. Moreover, such a reliable communication network is essential to provide speedy rescue and recovery operations in case of an emergency situation in a mine. However, due to the hostile nature and unique characteristics of underground mine workings, emergency response communication and disaster management are very challenging tasks. This chapter presents an overview of evolving technology wireless robotics networks (WRN) which may be a promising alternative to support search and rescue (SAR) operation in underground mine emergencies. The chapter first outlines the introduction followed by a detailed discussion on the current state of the art on WRNs and their development in the context of underground mines. Finally, this chapter provides some insights on open research areas targeting the current wireless research design community and those interested in pursuing such challenging problems in this field.

scholarly journals Adaptive Technology Training of Human Capital for the Mining Industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 04010
Author(s):  
Vadim Mikhalchenko ◽  
Irina Seredkina
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Technological Process ◽  
Quality Function Deployment ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Original Method ◽  
Customer Requirements ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Adaptive Technology ◽  
The University

In the article the original method Quality Function Deployment in relation to the preparation of University specialists with higher education. The method is based on the process of a phased conversion of customer requirements in specific organizational, substantive and functional transformation of the technological process of the University. The ultimate goal of these reforms - training knowledge and skills which meet the requirements and expectations of the customers of universities - enterprises of the mining industry.

scholarly journals Campbelltown Rotary Observatory

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-178
Author(s):  
R. Bhathal
Keyword(s):  
Public Access ◽  
The South ◽  
Fibre Glass ◽  
Observation Area ◽  
Teaching Research ◽  
Completion Date ◽  
The University

AbstractDonations (in cash and kind) amounting to $200,000 from companies in the south-western Sydney region have allowed the construction of a teaching, research and public access Observatory at the University of Western Sydney in Campbelltown. The Observatory will also serve as the home of the Australian Optical SETI Project (OZ OSETI for short). Two fibre-glass domes will be installed at the site. The main 4.5 m fibre-glass dome will house a 0.4 m telescope while the smaller 2.9 m dome will house a 0.3 m telescope. Both telescopes are fork-mounted Schmidt-Cassegrains working at f/10. An outside observation area will be used for tripod-mounted telescopes for public use and teaching purposes. The expected completion date for the project is July 2000.

Recent advances in remote coal mining machine sensing, guidance, and teleoperation

Robotica ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Ralston ◽  
D. W. Hainsworth ◽  
D. C. Reid ◽  
D. L. Anderson ◽  
R. J. McPhee
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Autonomous Systems ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
Mine Safety ◽  
Mining Machine ◽  
Mining Equipment ◽  
Coal Mining Industry ◽  
Recent Advances

This paper presents some recent applications of sensing, guidance and telerobotic technology in the coal mining industry. Of special interest is the development of semi or fully autonomous systems to provide remote guidance and communications for coal mining equipment. We consider the use of radar and inertial based sensors in an attempt to solve the horizontal and lateral guidance problems associated with mining equipment automation. We also describe a novel teleoperated robot vehicle with unique communications capabilities, called the Numbat, which is used in underground mine safety and reconnaissance missions.

scholarly journals Decrespignyite-(Y), a new copper yttrium rare earth carbonate chloride hydrate from Paratoo, South Australia

2002 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Wallwork ◽  
U. Kolitsch ◽  
A. Pring ◽  
L. Nasdala
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
Powder Diffraction ◽  
Country Rock ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
South Australia ◽  
New Mineral ◽  
Calculated Density ◽  
Mohs Hardness ◽  
The University ◽  
Chloride Hydrate

AbstractDecrespignyite-(Y) is a new copper yttrium rare earth carbonate chloride hydrate from the Paratoo copper mine, near Yunta, Olary district, South Australia. Decrespignyite-(Y) occurs as blue crusts, coatings and fillings in thin fissures on the slatey country rock. Individual pseudohexagonal platelets are typically 10–50 µm in maximum dimension and are often curved. Associated minerals include caysichite-(Y), donnayite-(Y), malachite and kamphaugite-(Y). Electron microprobe and CHN analyses gave: Y2O3 42.2; La2O3 0.1; Pr2O3 0.1; Nd2O3 1.3; Sm2O3 1.0; Gd2O3 4; Tb2O3 0.4; Dy2O3 3.7; Ho2O3 2.6; Er2O3 2.5; CaO 0.5; CuO 10.9; Cl 3.0; CO2 19.8; H2O 10.8, yielding an empirical formula of (Y3.08Gd0.22Dy0.16Ho0.11Er0.10Nd0.06Sm0.05Tb0.02La0.02Pr0.01Ca0.08)∑3.91Cu1.12(CO3)3.70-Cl0.7(OH)5.79·2.4H2O. The simplified formula is (Y,REE)4Cu(CO3)4Cl(OH)5·2H2O. The mineral is royal blue to turquoise-blue in colour, transparent, with a pearly to vitreous lustre and a pale blue streak. No cleavage was observed but the morphology suggests that cleavage would be on [010]. The Mohs' hardness is estimated to be 4. The strongest lines in the X-ray powder pattern are {dobs (Iobs) (hkl)} 22.79 (30) (010); 7.463 (30) (001); 7.086 (50) (011); 6.241 (100) (021); 4.216 (30) (l̄12); 3.530 (40) (022); 3.336 (30) (032); 2.143 (30) (222, 4̄01). The powder diffraction pattern was indexed on a monoclinic cell with a = 8.899(6), b = 22.77(2), c = 8.589(6)Å, β = 120.06(5)°, V = 1506.3(7) Å3 and Z = 4. The structure of the new mineral could not be determined but powder diffraction data indicate the space group is P2, Pm or P2/m. The measured density is 3.64(2) g/cm3 and the calculated density is 3.645 g/cm3. Decrespignyite-(Y) is biaxial negative with α = 1.604(4) and γ = 1.638(3) with β very close to γ pleochroism is medium strong; X very pale bluish, Y and Z bluish (with greenish tint). Decrespignyite-(Y) is a supergene mineral which precipitated from mildly basic carbonated ground waters. The mineral is named after Robert Champion de Crespigny, a prominent figure in the Australian mining industry and chancellor of the University of Adelaide.

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