Priya Ranjan Kumar, founder of Bengaluru-based EasyM2M Technologies, is quoted in The Economic Times, India saying that in the country’s coal mines, “one miner dies every third day. A lot of time is lost in miners trying to communicate to the surface during an accident, emergency, or even for quick advice on how to fix a machine.” His company has worked with Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) to introduce underground WiFi to its mines and wrist phones to its miners to enable real-time tracking and two-way communication for the miners.
The Economic Times reports that “mines in India, both underground and opencast, generally have just one phone or an intercom device for miners to communicate with the monitoring and control rooms at the surface. But such systems barely work and are not very dependable, said Kumar.
“Kumar and his team built wireless mesh networks to provide internet at all times to support the features of iWristPhone. Apart from WiFi and Bluetooth, the wearable device has a gravity sensor that can detect miners falling and being trapped, can monitor and record their GPS coordinates every minute and has a 3 megapixel camera for video calls.
“It can also measure the heart rate and blood pressure. The mobile application will record the data and can be used by those on the surface to communicate with the miners. Wireless mesh networks cost one-third the installation cost of regular WiFi networks, and eliminate the traditional coal mine monitoring systems that are wired network systems.”
“Often, miners are trapped for hours when a hazard takes place. They could Skype with doctors and get on-demand medical advice when there is no way out. Video calls can be made to the rescue teams within minutes, something that would otherwise take hours,” said Kumar.
“While there are gas sensors to detect leaks, and an internal safety audit that is done, miners are still prone to fatal accidents and that can be largely checked with quick tracking and communication systems,” said S N Suman, General Manager, Sripur, ECL.
The Indian Government is also doing trials with underground wireless technology in mines. “For the first time, wireless technology is being implemented in India,” said Bodapati Prasad, Head of Department, Science and Technology at Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd (CIL).
Easy M2M notes its “ThirdEye™ Solution for safety, security and surveillance of employees using iWristPhone geo-tracking, health monitoring device on cloud.”