NIOSH Emergency Technologies Research and Development

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NIOSH Emergency Technologies Research and
Development

• WJU International Mining Health Safety
  Symposium
• David Snyder, MS, PE
• Office of Mine Safety and Health Research
• April 7, 2011

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OMSHR Research Update

• NIOSH continues to conduct and sponsor RD
  relative to the MINER Act in the following areas
• Communications
• Tracking
• Oxygen Supplies
• Refuge Alternatives
• Rescue Technologies
• Mine Monitoring and Sensor systems
• Todays presentation will focus on Emergency
  Communications and Tracking systems

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NIOSHs Contributions

• Approach roadmap building blocks to achieve by
  2009
• National and International
• Consensus among labor, industry, government
  agencies
• Technical Vision
• Establish performance specifications for
  candidate technologies
• Fund a range and mix of technologies
• Technical Work
• Administer and oversee contract research and
  development
• Conduct in-mine experiments and lab R,D, E
• Tech Transfer
• Workshops, publications, collaborating with MSHA,
  etc.

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Hard-wired Systems Pre- Miner Act
Limited Communications Access
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Coverage of Critical Areas with Wireless Systems
Wireless Coverage has tremendous safety
advantages for the miners
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Primary Communications

• Primary communications systems are those that
• Operate in the conventional radio bands
• Use small antennas that allow the miner to have
  wearable devices with long battery life
• Have sufficient throughput for general operations
• Leaky feeder and node based systems are examples
  of primary systems
• Either approach requires vulnerable
  infrastructure in the mine

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Survivability....The Challenge
What happens if 2000 feet of all entries are lost?
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Survivability..The Goal
Alternate Communication Paths
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Survivability.Secondary Systems
What if the event happened here?
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Current Research

• Improved Survivability Secondary Systems
• TTE systems development
• Medium Frequency performance analysis
• C/T Interoperability
• GPS denied navigation and tracking
• C/T Systems Safety

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Secondary Systems

• Secondary Systems are those that have few active
  components and a high potential to survive a
  disaster
• Medium Frequency Systems and TTE Systems are
  secondary systems may provide survivable
  alternative paths
• A secondary system is one which
• Operates in non-conventional frequency bands
• Uses a large antenna that is best suited for
  fixed locations or portable applications
• Does not have sufficient throughput for general
  operations

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NIOSH-Led CONTRIBUTIONS

• Medium Frequency (MF) Systems
• Developed a medium-frequency system for face area
  redundancy
• Develop a bridge to allow interoperability
  between medium-frequency system and the
  ultra-high frequency leaky feeder system
• Developed a medium frequency portable radio for
  use in escape situations
• Initial Technology developed through a U.S. Army
  CERDEC SBIR
• Future NIOSH research publications will help MF
  system designers and users to optimize the range
  and performance of MF communications
• MF model development is planned for future work

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Medium Frequency Communications
Commercially Available Distances up to 2 miles
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NIOSH-Led CONTRIBUTIONS

• Through The Earth Systems
• NIOSH awarded five separate contracts for
  development and demonstration of TTE systems
• By 2012, a TTE permissible communications system
  will be commercially available to the mining
  industry
• Future NIOSH research publications will help TTE
  system designers and users to optimize the range
  and performance of TTE communications
• TTE model development is planned for future work

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Through the Earth (TTE) Communications
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Permissible Systems Results

• Feasibility of TTE communications demonstrated
• Underground to surface range of 680-ft for voice
  and 1200-ft for text _at_ intrinsically-safe levels
• Directional finding with beacon
• Prototype hardware

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Interoperability

• Interoperability refers to our vision of the
  future of survivable mine communications in which
  a low bandwidth secondary communications channel
  would be used as a backup for the primary
  communications system.
• Key goal - Miner would be able to communicate
  using the same handheld device as used for day to
  day operations

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UHF to MF Interoperability

• Commercially Available
• Distances up to 2 miles between repeaters
• Distances up to 2000 feet between repeaters and
  hand held units

Conductor
UHF
Medium Frequency
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UHF to TTE Interoperability
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UHF to MF to TTE Interoperability
TTE
UHF
Medium Frequency
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Tracking System
Miner wears a tag or handset Unique ID (RFID or
MAC) Needs readers of tags
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Tracking System Improvements

• Tracking System Performance Research Contract
• Define performance parameters for underground
  mines
• Develop measurement techniques and tools
• Competitive contract award to Virginia Tech
• Inertial Measurement Unit assisted tracking
  systems hold promise for more survivable and
  accurate tracking
• Primary problem with IMU based systems is
  excessive drift of the miner device
• NIOSH has funded evaluations of two different
  approaches to the problem
• Belt mounted radio node based correction
• Shoe mounted visual cue based correction

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Future Research

• Electrical Safety and Communications Team headed
  by Dr. Joe Waynert
• Future C/T technology research will be conducted
  under this team
• Currently staffing to expand in-house research
  capabilities in the post ESA environment
• In-house research is consistent with traditional
  approach and current budget
• Process includes formulating structured research
  projects which are peer reviewed and normally
  have a 3 to 5 year timeframe

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Technology Research Areas

• The team is formulating research projects in the
  areas of
• Signal Propagation Systems Modeling
• Communications Tracking Systems Safety
• Communications Tracking Systems Improvement
• The focus of the Electrical Safety and
  Communications team is the improvement of the
  safety, reliability and survivability of the C/T
  systems

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Improving Mineworker Health Safety Through
Research Prevention
Never forgetting its about the health safety
of the mineworker!
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Improved Survivability the Next Steps

• The principal challenge for post accident
  operation is survivability
• Lesson learned Survivability is most
  practically achieved through alternate
  communications paths.
• No practical way to harden primary communications
  infrastructure to survive any conceivable event
• Survivability has as much to do with the design
  and installation as it does the technology
• Mine specific design approach

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Alternate Communications Paths for Leaky Feeder
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Alternate Communications Paths for Node based
systems
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Alternate Communications Paths for Node based
systems (Mesh)
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Alternate Communications Paths

• Ideally the alternate communications path is
  truly diverse and highly reliable
• Independent failure mechanisms
• No shared components between the primary and
  alternate path that would fail from a common
  event
• Minimum number of active components (those that
  require electricity) yields the highest
  reliability
• Secondary Systems offer great potential for an
  alternate communications path, particularly near
  the face
• A borehole directly to the miner would be the
  ideal alternate communications path

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TTE (ELF LF)
Primary Wireless Systems UHF/VHF
MF Parasitic Propagation
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Fiber 1,000,000,000,000 bps
Wires 1,000,000,000bps
Decreasing Throughput
Primary Wireless Systems 1,000,000bps
Secondary Systems a few thousand to less than
100 bps
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Interoperability Challenge

• Interoperability with digital and multi-channel
  communications is more complicated
• How do we ensure that only emergency traffic is
  directed to this secondary system?

Normal Operations
Emergency Messages
Hybrid Systems will need to be developed to
address the bandwidth mediation challenge.
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Systems Quality Assurance

• The introduction of wireless communications and
  tracking systems also introduces the need to
  ensure the quality and compliance of these
  systems.
• Measurement tools and techniques need to be
  developed
• Predictive tools and analysis techniques are
  needed.
• Design of Systems
• Calculating Survivability of systems
• Performance Goals need to be established in a
  manner that enables compliance determination.
• Examples, tracking accuracy, system
  survivability, etc. (See 3.1.6 of NIOSH Tutorial
  for more)

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MineComms MapperTM
from SkyMark (Helium Networks)

• Collect radio frequency data throughout the
  mine.
• Track location continuously, quickly, easily.
• Generate accurate coverage maps.
• Improve mine-wide communications coverage.
• Verify coverage to meet Miner Act requirements.
• Commercially Available
• Steve David (412-371-0680)

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Interagency Collaborations

• US Army CERDEC Medium Frequency System
• US Army CERDEC Ferromagnetic Materials
  Technology
• NIST Medium Frequency and Systems
  Interoperability Modelling
• DARPA HUMS program and TRX Systems
• US Navy Battery Safety

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NIOSH-defined goals for post-accident
communication

• Post-accident communications functionality as
  envisioned in the MINER Act
• Should be useful for routine communications
• Must be reasonably likely to provide 2-way
  communications in the aftermath of a typical
  disaster (historical context)
• Must provide coverage in critical areas, e.g.
  escapeway, known entries within active panels
• Must be applicable to all types and sizes of
  underground coal mines
• Must be achieved within 3 years
• Must serve as a platform that can be enhanced and
  improved as newer technologies become available

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