Abstract:
This paper describes the work carried out on the design and construction of a mine safety
system prototype using a wireless sensor network with the objective of building a safety system to monitor
the ambient characteristics of the mining environment. A review of the current literature relating to the health
and safety of mine workers and mine safety systems is done. The subsystems of the prototype system are then
simulated. The hardware consisted of electronic circuitry where a microcontroller is the principal processing
unit. A graphical user interface is also implemented. A number of quali cation tests are carried out. The
temperature, humidity, air ow, and noise sensor measurements have an accuracy of 89.01%, 98.55%, 90.5%,
and 89.53%, and a resolution of 0.105 C, 0.12% RH, 0.05 m/s, and 0.23 dB SPL, respectively. In addition,
gas and dust sensors met the speci cation; however, the accuracy could be improved. Two controlled outputs
were implemented in the form of ventilation switching and a noise protection scheme.
