Mine Safety and Communications
US Sensor Systems, Inc. provides the Mining Industry with two major safety functions, personnel location within a mine and emergency, two-way communications. The USSI MineSafe™ System enables full-time tracking of miners. Miner locations can be displayed on a real-time map located in a surface control room or mine office. It also allows bi-directional communication between the surface control room and personnel in the mine during an emergency, even when electrical power to the mine has to be shut down.
Real - Time Miner Tracking
USSI incorporates an MSHA-Approved fiber optic cable to continuously track the location of mine personnel. This revolutionary fiber sensing cable is divided into location zones through the use of permanently embedded sensors within the cable. Miners carry a coded, acoustic beacon that generates unique, high frequency tones which are detected by the sensing cable. As tones are detected by the fiber cable, miner locations are updated & displayed on a topside map grid display. These acoustic beacon signals can be detected even when noisy, continuous, mining machines are in operation (i.e. roof bolters, etc.)
Two-Way Emergency Communications
USSI incorporates all-optical two-way communications into the fiber sensing cable through the use of our Fiber Optic Microphone™ and an all-optical earpiece. These devices are deployed at locations along the sensing cable in inherently safe breakout boxes. The fiber microphone provides uplink communication to the outside world, while the optical earplug allows miners to receiver downlink communication from above ground. The combined devices provide power-free bi-directional communications.
