IoT Based Multimode Sensing Platform for Underground Coal Mines

Real-time information of the underground environment plays a vital role for underground coal mines. For this purpose, a number of systems have been developed by earlier researchers. However, the application of IoT is very limited due to the nonexistence of TCP/IP in underground coal mines. Therefore, attempts have been made to develop an IP based multimode sensing platform for realizing the vision of IoT in underground coal mines. In the present development, a Zigbee based wireless sensor network (WSN) has been initially established and extended to IoT with IP enabled gateway. In addition, the data discard mechanism has been used to address the life span of the sensor network. A dashboard has been designed to access the data at the confluence of WSN and the gateway. Further, an android app has been developed for retrieving the data using the corresponding IP address. The data have also been visualized by the web browser in the same fashion. Finally, the full-scale IoT system has been tested and it is evident from the obtained results that the response of the system is in agreement.