Slashdot Mirror
An Underground Radio to Save Lives
Roland Piquepaille writes "The Duluth News Tribune wrote last week about a communication device which could be a lifesaver for miners. This invention is the brainchild of David Reagor, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). His prototype radio works at depths of 500 feet and is based on very low frequency electromagnetic radiation and digital signal processors. A commercial version is in the works and could be used not only by workers trapped in a mine, but also by firefighters and other emergency workers to communicate with people in collapsed buildings or subways."
In recent mine collapses, two things were needed in the mining tunnels, oxygen, and communication. Without oxygen, humans die. Without communication, humans are lost in a large mine shaft with relatively no way to signal those above of where ventilation shafts can drilled to vent toxic gases and supply oxygen. The truth is, communication is vital, and the lack thereof has been proven deadly, with this radio, perhaps mining accidents don't become mining tragedies in the future.
Karma: Good, or bust!
South Dakota's Homestake gold mine is 8,000 feet deep. 16 times deeper than this thing can reach. What's needed are acoustical communicators that can ping through the rock with a coded signal telling the miner's location. But given the safety record of mine operators, they won't update the codes as new side-tunnels are dug, won't keep the batteries charged, won't keep the receivers in working order, and won't train the safety personnel.
Most rockfalls leave the main shaft ok. You could run a cable down the shaft and have "access points" at vaious depths etc. The VLF only has to cover the last bit to the actual miner.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
This seems like a great idea until you think about:
- the fact that every scanner will need a hard line back to whatever computer system is collating the data (or at least a radio bearer which it can communicate with).
- the maintenance overhead of say an average small mines crew of about 150 undergrounders needing to make sure their RFID tag is working every day and fixing them if they are not.
- All this gear having to work in an environment which is incredibly tough on equipment. For example, your RFID scanners would need to be able to withstand nearby explosions, or your miners would fall into the habit of not placing them on freshly blasted areas because when they blast the next section they would destroy the previous area's scanner - but the sections being blasted are usually the most hazardous.
In *good* mines the crews already have good knowledge of where their mates are working, the supervisors track the locations of their crews well enough, and in the event of accidents usually it is known approximately where the trapped miners are. In bad mines - well they aren't going to fork out millions of bucks for a fancy RFID setup are they.
There are three places to focus the technology that are useful IMO:
1. Technology to help manage risks and prevent accidents (for example - tele-mucking where remote controlled diggers are used in dangerous locations, better understanding and monitoring of seismic activty etc).
2. Technology to help detect exactly where people are - when you are blasting and drilling through a cave-in 10 metres is actually a long long way. Some sort of PSD which could be activated in the event of an emergency (perhaps based on ELF or this device) could also be very handy in pinpointing location.
3. The mine managers notebook - so that he/she can't deny they saw the 10 emails from the supervisors about their concerns with respect to tunnel 12 etc.