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| Safer coal mines |
| Rock falls, poisonous gas emissions, and explosions. Underground coal mining can be hazardous. Picture a control room of a modern day coal mine: over 20 000 sources of data flood in—communications, equipment, people movement, temperatures, levels of critical gases, ground movement. Fancy being a mine controller?! To make the job easier, a new system, NEXSYS™, has been developed to monitor risks in ‘real-time’. NEXSYS™ integrates both Australian and Japanese technologies. The project is funded by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), with support from the Japan Coal Energy Center (JCOAL), Anglo Coal’s Grasstree Mine (Queensland, Australia) and CSIRO Exploration and Mining. NEXSYS™ integrates mine data, analyses it, and then forms predictions. The experiences of mine operators are built in to the system so that NEXSYS™ can give mine controllers advice—wow! ‘NEXSYS™ becomes a decision support system’, says Greg Rowan, project co-ordinator from CSIRO. ‘The system should be able to pick up potential problems much earlier than is possible now’. Ingeniously, NEXSYS™ software will ‘separate the 100 or 200 critical datasets from the background noise of 20 000, and monitor them continuously and automatically’, says Greg. NEXSYS™ is a world first in safe communication hardware. To avoid igniting methane gas, NEXSYS™ hardware uses small amounts of power. It is certified ‘Intrinsically Safe’, and runs from a battery in emergencies. Installed in coal mines in Australia and Japan, NEXSYS™ provides an up-to-date 3D picture of what’s happening in the mine. Greg is excited about the possibilities. ‘NEXSYS™ has application worldwide in a range of other hazardous area industries, not just underground coal mining’. Contact in Australia: Greg Rowan, Research Leader, Mining ICT and Automation, CSIRO Exploration and Mining, Sustainable Mining Group, QLD Email: greg.rowan@csiro.au Ph: +61 7 3327 4179 Fax: +61 7 3327 4455 Contact in Japan: Satoshi Matsuyama, Engineering Department, Japan Coal Energy Center. Tokyo Email: matsuyama@jcoal.or.jp Ph: +81-3-6400-5196 Fax: +81-3-6400-5206 |
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