Improving Safety For Miners By Providing A Wireless Real Time Locating System

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mining is as dangerous as it is critical to our nation's economic well-being. The proposed research aims to significantly enhance workplace safety for miners by providing a real time wireless tracking and monitoring system (TAMS). A TAMS device will be worn by each miner and will provide both the miner's location and monitor real-time exposure to environmental hazards. The resulting location data will be critical in guiding rescue efforts in case of emergency, and will allow detained workflow analysis in a mine environment to improve the safety of operations. The resulting environmental data will provide both an instantaneous and cumulative measure of miners' exposure to environmental hazards. By fusing the two data sets, an unprecedented level of detailed information will be available on both the nature and location of environmental threats in the mine environment. The long term objective of the proposed research is a dramatic improvement in workplace safety for miners. The specific aim is to establish the feasibility of a wireless tracking technology suitable for use in a mine environment. The key to successful TAMS is an effective wireless tracking technology that can cope with the difficult propagation environment in mines. The proposed research will investigate using a breakthrough wireless tracking technology: near field electromagnetic ranging or "NFER". Through a combination of theoretical analysis and real world radio measurements in an abandoned mine, the proposed research aims to establish the feasibility of the TAMS concept. Further, the proposed effort includes a proof-of-concept demonstration to rigorously validate a preliminary design for the system.