“Last Mile” Underground Construction Communication

Underground mines require continuous communication with mine equipment and personnel. Fiber optic or other wired communication infrastructure works in most mines, but for the advancing face, or “last mile,” it is difficult to provide effective and reliable coverage due to the close proximity to drilling and blasting events. A lack of reliable communication results in delayed reactions to unexpected events, safety concerns and slowed production. The team created a small, easy-to-install communication network that can be readily deployed to the “last mile” between blasting events. Taking into consideration the mines’ environmental
conditions and possible signal interference underground, the team developed a portable mesh network that consists of various battery-powered nodes that act as gateway devices, transmitters and receivers in a network based on Wi-Fi and Zigbee. The mesh network is self-configuring and self-healing in the event that a node fails. This ensures that the relay of data and communication is not interrupted. The combination of Wi-Fi and Zigbee in each node allows for minimal power usage and maximum signal amplification for the entire mesh system.