Wireless mine tracking, monitoring, and rescue communications system
First Claim
1. A wireless mine monitoring, tracking, and communications network, comprising:
- at least one network controller installed at the mine office level and running application control software for remotely monitoring all connected devices in the network;
a plurality of active wireless transponders wearable by personnel entering and exiting mines and/or installable on equipment moving into, used throughout, and exiting mines, wherein said wireless transponders include transceivers;
at least one location subnet controller in wireless or wired or a combination of wired and wireless electronic communication with one or more of said at least one network controller and having an integral battery power supply;
a plurality of wireless access points, each in wireless communication with at least one of said subnet controllers, said wireless access points installed at the field level in the entries and crosscuts of an underground mine, said wireless access points also in wireless communication with said active wireless transponders for tracking said active wireless transponders and for making emergency communications available to miners, each of said wireless access points having an integral battery power supply; and
an automatic self-healing system for automated self-healing fail-over in the event that one of said plurality of wireless access points fails to function, said automatic self-healing system including at least a hop-over link recovery system;
wherein said plurality of active wireless transponders, said plurality of wireless access points, said at least one location subnet controller, and said at least one network controller are linked with one another through bi-directional network communications links, said bi-directional communications links including bi-directional voice and data communications to provide full-duplex streaming of voice data across a hierarchical mesh network topology;
wherein in the event of a catastrophic emergency that destroys a portion of said network, such that at least one of said wireless access points or subnet controllers fails to function, or when there is an accident that disrupts the primary or normal path of data transfer, said automatic self-healing system applies a rerouting/recovery/and failover mechanism;
and wherein said integral battery power supply, said active wireless transponders, said wireless access points, and said at least one location subnet controller are intrinsically safe.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An intrinsically safe accurate location information network for personnel and assets in underground mines, including wireless access points and subnetwork controllers, active wireless locator/messenger tags, network controller(s), and enterprise servers running application control software. The wireless access points are installed in mine entries and crosscuts and track the active wireless locator/messenger tags. The active tags may be worn by mine personnel or installed in mining equipment. The network subsystems form relay networks that wirelessly carry telemetry and control data without the need to penetrate the earth. The subsystems determine the location of persons and assets underground and monitor safety-related information, which can be used for disaster avoidance, early warning of impending disaster, and improved rescue effectiveness.
76 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A wireless mine monitoring, tracking, and communications network, comprising:
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at least one network controller installed at the mine office level and running application control software for remotely monitoring all connected devices in the network; a plurality of active wireless transponders wearable by personnel entering and exiting mines and/or installable on equipment moving into, used throughout, and exiting mines, wherein said wireless transponders include transceivers; at least one location subnet controller in wireless or wired or a combination of wired and wireless electronic communication with one or more of said at least one network controller and having an integral battery power supply; a plurality of wireless access points, each in wireless communication with at least one of said subnet controllers, said wireless access points installed at the field level in the entries and crosscuts of an underground mine, said wireless access points also in wireless communication with said active wireless transponders for tracking said active wireless transponders and for making emergency communications available to miners, each of said wireless access points having an integral battery power supply; and an automatic self-healing system for automated self-healing fail-over in the event that one of said plurality of wireless access points fails to function, said automatic self-healing system including at least a hop-over link recovery system; wherein said plurality of active wireless transponders, said plurality of wireless access points, said at least one location subnet controller, and said at least one network controller are linked with one another through bi-directional network communications links, said bi-directional communications links including bi-directional voice and data communications to provide full-duplex streaming of voice data across a hierarchical mesh network topology; wherein in the event of a catastrophic emergency that destroys a portion of said network, such that at least one of said wireless access points or subnet controllers fails to function, or when there is an accident that disrupts the primary or normal path of data transfer, said automatic self-healing system applies a rerouting/recovery/and failover mechanism; and wherein said integral battery power supply, said active wireless transponders, said wireless access points, and said at least one location subnet controller are intrinsically safe. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. An intrinsically-safe wireless mine monitoring, tracking, and communications network, comprising:
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at least one network controller running application control software; at least one location subnet controller running application control software and acting as a distributed compute-center in bi-directional electronic communication with one or more of said at least one network controller; a plurality of active wireless transponders wearable by personnel entering and exiting mines and/or installable on equipment moving into, used throughout, and exiting mines, wherein said wireless transponders include two-way voice and/or text and/or location services transceivers; a plurality of wireless access points in bi-directional wireless communication with each other and with at least one of said subnet controllers, said wireless access points installed at the field level in at least the entries and crosscuts of an underground mine, said wireless access points also in bi-directional wireless communication with said active wireless transponders for tracking said active wireless transponders and for making emergency communications available to miners and rescuers; an energy efficient power supply and power-design incorporating intelligent sleep functions capable of operating for at least several days on small intrinsically safe batteries; and a set of permanently mounted tags in fixed locations throughout the mine as calibrators that provide self-report reference points at known locations; wherein said application control software utilizes said subnet controllers, wireless access points, active transponders, and permanently mounted tags to provide precise location determination routinely updated mine-wide for all miners wearing an active transponder, said location determination means including at least, (a) precise algorithms utilizing RSSI plus LQI, plus RF vector-gradient, combined to perform probabilistic triangulation calculations to mitigate errors in ordinary RSSI algorithms, (b) system self-calibration using real-time statistical analysis of actual tunnel RF parametrics including at least absorptive loss effects, multipath, other constructive/destructive interference effects, waveguide effects, tunnel bend effects, blockages/stoppings, and other sources of aliasing, so as to reduce common sources of error that otherwise limit the accuracy that can be achieved using ordinary RF propagation models for underground tunnels, (c) human movement heuristics, knowledge of specific wearer characteristics, tunnel boundary and stopping data, filtering, and time averaging in algorithms optimized for precise location in underground mining; wherein said location determination means provides high-precision miner location capability which is able to locate miners within 2-25 meters; and further wherein said network uses a hierarchical distributed computing architecture and an orchestrated pull protocol running on backbone wireless subnetworks, each of said subnetworks including a plurality of wireless access points to cover a predetermined length of tunnel entry and crosscut, such that said network is scalable to any size mine and real-world mine-wide load. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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Specification