Wireless Communication and Environment Monitoring in Underground Coal Mines - Review

Environment monitoring in underground coal mines has been a mandatory requirement to ensure safe working conditions in mines. There is a need to develop active communication and information network to quickly detect the underground condition and accurately provide location references to evacuate workers from the dangerous zone. This paper addresses the recent technological comprehensive developments in the area of communication and environment monitoring in underground coal mines. It points out the suitability of application of recently developed wireless sensor network for this purpose as proposed by different researchers all over the world. The possibility of image, video surveillance, and use of robot are also explored here. Need of real-time implementation of proper system inside regulated and hazardous mining environment is evaluated in details.