t

1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

Implementation of Smart Safety Helmet for

Coal Mine Workers

Pranjal Hazarika
Department of Electrical Engineering, Jorhat Engineering College, Jorhat, India
E-mail: pran18hazarika@gmail.com

Abstract-This paper presents implementation of safety

helmet for coal mine workers. This helmet is equipped with
methane and carbon monoxide gas sensor. This sensor sense
the gas and the data is transmitted to the control room
wirelessly , through a wireless module called X-Bee connected
with the helmet. When the methane or carbon-monoxide gas
concentration is beyond the critical level, controller in the
control room triggers an alarm and keeps the plant and the
workers safe by preventing an upcoming accident.
Keywords-Smatt Safety Helmet; Gas Sensor; X-Bee
Fig. I: Block Diagram of Smart Safety Helmet
I. INTRO DU CTION
III. DESIGNING OF HELMET CIRCUITRY
Demand of coal as energy resources is always important
The helmet circuit is designed in Fritzing, a GUI used
and significant. But thousands of people have lost their lives
by electronic engineers for designing electronic circuit
in mining accidents, all over the world. In their article Jing
equipped with various features like bread board view,
change, Qinggui Cao & Yonjige Yang listed 100 of major
schematic view, PCB view and also auto routing
mining accident which had taken place from 2001-2010 [1].
As most of the coal mines in North East region of the
country are still in primitive state, the mining accidents here
are also very frequent. The main reason is these accidents
occur due to the presence of methane and carbon monoxide
gas in theses mines. These gas are colorless, odorless and is
undetectable by human sensors [2]. The key to controlling
such accidents is the prediction of outburst by implementing
sensors and microcontrollers and to generate an alarm
Fig. 2: Fritzing Designing of the Circuit
system before critical atmospheric level. A continuous
monitoring is necessary which again requires some effective The voltage regulator 7805 and LM 351T are used for
and accurate sensing system. Several technique are adopted voltage regulation. MQ7 and MQ2 are used for sensing
CH4 and CO respectively. The X-Bee is of series 2, having
to sense the presence of these poisonous gas, among them
a range of 2000 meter at the line of sight. The system
use of semi conductor type gas sensor is very much
power is made ON-OFF using a simple switch.
effective. These sensors can be mounted in the coal mine
area [3]but some time these create some problems in mining IV. DESIGNING OF HELMET IN AUTO CAD
too. Accidental damage of the sensor device often took
The helmet is designed in Auto-CAD Inventor Fusion
place. Another technique is the use of robot [4]. These robot
and is ' in the below.
are effective but for country like India where industrialists
are not much concerned about the safety of the workers, we
cannot imagine about a robots. However, there is another
way of getting effective and low cost solution of sensor
implantation. It is on the safety helmet of the coal mine
workers. A smart safety helmet having sensor array to sense
data and a wireless modem to transmit it [5].

II. BLOCK DI AGR AM OF HELMET

The block diagram of the helmet is given below: Fig. 3: AutoCAD Design of Smart Safety Helmet

978-1-4673-8587-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE [1]

 t
1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics. Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

As seen in the above Fig. a 3D image of the device is sleep mode with pin awake configuration. Pin 2 and 3 of
obtained as marked in the diagram sensor, X-Bee, and the X-Bee is set to ADC mode to get analogue data from the
other circuit component is kept in the helmet inside the sensor. Data Pull method is used to avoid the crashing
illumination chamber. Gas sensor are kept vertically, problem of the coordinator. Each time an awake signal is
facing the ground. While designing the helmet, safety received by the router X-Bee, it wakes up and give the
norms are also followed and is made under Indian data of analogue pin 2 & 3. After the data transmission it
Standard Specification for Industrial Safety Helmets again goes to sleep mode. Data sampling rate (IR) is set to
keeping the total weight of the helmet under 400 grams. 5 second. Data is transmitted to the receiver in a maximum
speed of 250kbps.
A. Experimental Setup
V. NETWORK TOPOLOGY

The system communicates in Mesh network using

MAC protocol [6].The flow chart of the transmitter system
is given next.

Fig. 4: Experimental Set up of Smart System

Before implementing the smart system on helmet, it is

tested and the result is monitored experimentally. The
experimental set up is portrayed in Fig. 4.

B. X-Bee Configuration

For a successful transmission the configuration of

X-Bee module is most important. The transceiver module is
configured using X-CTU software from Digi International.
X-CTU is a multi-platform application that enables
developers to interact with Digi- radio frequency (RF)
modules through a simple-to-use graphical interface. It is an
open source platform for configuring radio modules, having
Fig. 6: Flow Chart of Router X-Bee
several features like range testing, spectrum analyzer,
network scanning, checksum monitoring, packet data Each time the router is awaked by an awaking signal
transmission. generated by the coordinator, the coordinator is asking for
the data from router. This method is called pull method
and is superior in those case where there are more number
of router. This is because if two or more router is
transmitted at the same time, coordinator is not able to
fetch the data and may crash. In this system another
important technique is used, called token passing. During
transmission of data, router passes a token with the data to
coordinator that data is transmitted. When the coordinator
gets the token with the data it sends an acknowledgement
signal to the router and stop sending awaking signal to that
router. It then sends awaking signal to the next router and
the process keeps continuing.
Data can be continuously monitored using a hardware
(microcontroller) Set up or by using Lab-View software.
Fig. 5: X-Bee Configuration in X-CTU
A. Monitoring ofData using Lab View
In the experiment a single coordinator and the router
are used. Both router and coordinator must have same Lab view is a Graphical user interface, a kind of
PAN ID. Destination of router is the source address of simulator especially designed for instrumentation
coordinator. To save battery power X-Bee are set in cyclic engineers by NI [5]. It consists of front panel and a block

[2]
 t
1s IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Intelligent Control and Energy Systems (ICPEICES-2016)

diagram panel where the blocks are connected and all The panel have switch to set the set point for CO &
mathematical works are done. The Figure below shows CH4 concentration for each node separately. When the
the monitoring of sensor data using lab view software. wireless data goes above set point it generates an alarm in
the control room and also in the smart hehnet remotely.
Both auto and manual option are available. A network
LED is provided to know whether the router is in the
network or have gone out of range.

VI. CONCLUSION

Detection of an odorless and colorless gas is not an

easy task, moreover some inaccurate device and improper
-
a
sensor placement make the task more difficult. The smart
safety helmet is going to be one of most effective and
useful technique in mining industries due to its excellent
sensing ability, low cost, good and reliable signal
transmission. Also the system can be monitored in Lab­
Fig. 7: Lab View Data Monitoring view and in a portable mini monitor panel, which gives the
system versatility. Lab-view monitoring is more accurate
As shown in the above Figure, in Lab view the data
but is little expensive due to the expense of the software.
from different nodes are monitored continuously. There is
On the other hand, hand-held portable monitoring device
one network indicator for each node, which indicates the
is very cheap and good for monitoring few routers.
presence or absence of router in the network. Router 3 is
out of the range hence network indicator is red and no data
REFERENCES
is obtained from there. When Gas concentration is greater
than the set point value it makes the alarm high as seen in [I] Xu sheng Z and Yunlong Z. 2010. Accident cause analysis and
counter measure of coal and gas outburst nearly two years of our
the router 4. country[J]. Mining Safety and Environmental Protection. 37(1):
84-87.
B. Monitoring ofData using Microcontroller
[2] Dawud Y. 1999. "Smoke episodes and assessment of health
impacts related to haze from forest fires:lndonesian experience".
Another effective and low cost technique of data
The Indonesian Association of Pulmonologist, Persahabatan
monitoring is the use of microcontroller. Arduino mega is Hospital Jakarta. pp. 3 I 3-322.
one of such solution [7]. X-Bee data can be continually in [3] Gongbo Zhou, Zhencai Zhu, Guangzhu Chen, Ningning HU,2009,
serial monitor of Adruino lED or in a Energy-Efficient Chain-type Wireless Sensor Network for Gas
Monitoring, Second International Conference on I nformation and
Computing Science
[4] Dani Martinez, Javier Moreno, Marcel Tresanchez, Merce Teixido,
Davinia Font, Antonio Pardo,Santiago, Marco and Jordi Palacin
20I IExperimental application of an autonomous mobile robot for
gas leak detection in indoor environments

[5] Jinhao Sun, Jinhao Sun Yezi Li Xiaojin Ya, 201I The design of
automatic detection processing deviceof gas leakage based on the
MB95204K, IEEE-978-1-4244-8165-11l I
[6] HE Si-yuan,2008, The Research of Energy Efficient MAC Protocols
in Gas Monitoring System of Mine. International Symposium on
Information Science and Engieering
[7] Mohd Erwan Mohd Ussdek, Syed Abdul Mutalib AI Junid, Zulkitli
Abd Majid, Fairul Nazmie Osman, Zulkitli Othman,2013, High­
Sensitivity Gas Detection and Monitoring System for High-Risk
Welding Activity, Conference on Systems, Process & Control
(TCSPC20I 3), 13-IS December 20I 3, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Fig. 8: Monitoring of Data in the Control Panel

[3]