A Smart Mining Safety System: Real-Time Environmental Sensing and Rapid Emergency Response

Abstract

Introduction: As the Coal mining environments posses significant safety hazards due to the presence of toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and methane, which are harmful for health too, as well as extreme change in temperature and humidity. Assuring the safety and health of mine workers requires real-time monitoring of both environmental and health conditions .The development of a smart, integrated safety system that continuously tracks and monitors gas concentrations, varying temperature, humidity of atmosphere including pulse rate and blood oxygen levels of the workers.The system integrates various sensors which are interfaced with the ESP8266 microcontroller, which enable wireless communication with a central monitoring unit via Wi-Fi. For unusual readings alerts are sent to the control room by buzzer and , providing rapid emergency response to the workers . And so this real-time system is specially designed to enhance the safety of the workers and reduce the risks of underground mining operations.

Objectives: The project mainly focuses to develop a real-time and low-cost system for safety of workers and to prevent the accident causing factors for coal mines. It continuously monitors the harmful gases like carbon monoxide , methane along with temperature and humidity of atmosphere inside the coal mine, along with it monitoring the pulse rate and oxygen levels of workers working in mine. The sensors which we have used in this system to collect the data are MQ7, MQ4, DHT11, and MAX30102 . ESP8266 is the microcontroller which is used to process the data and send wirelessly to ThingSpeak for monitoring it . The system also triggers alerts whenever any unsafe conditions occurs and also ensure timely response to look after worker safety.

Methods: This system was developed with the goal of improving the safety of workers in underground mining environments. It keeps track of potentially dangerous gases, monitors workers’ vital signs like pulse rate, and observes environmental factors such as temperature and humidity. At the heart of the system is the ESP8266 microcontroller, which handles all the data collection and processing from the connected sensors. For gas detection, the setup uses the MQ7 sensor for carbon monoxide and the MQ4 sensor for methane—both chosen for their importance in identifying harmful gas concentrations. The MAX30102 sensor is responsible for monitoring the pulse rate, while temperature and humidity readings are gathered through the DHT11. Whenever any readings go beyond safe limits, the system immediately triggers real-time alerts to warn workers and supervisors. All collected data is sent wirelessly using Wi-Fi to a ThingSpeak dashboard, allowing for continuous remote monitoring. The sensors are connected using GPIO, analog, digital, and I²C interfaces, ensuring smooth and efficient communication. To confirm its  reliability, the system was thoroughly tested in conditions that closely mimic real mining scenarios, and it responded well in detecting hazards promptly.

Results: Our system was able to successfully monitor key aspects of underground mining safety in real time. It picked up dangerous levels of gases like carbon monoxide and methane with reliable accuracy, triggering warnings when those levels crossed safe limits. Also side by side gas detection, it also tracked environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, helping to identify risky conditions. For health monitoring, the system kept an eye on workers’ pulse and oxygen levels, and sent out alerts promptly when anything seemed out of the ordinary.

Conclusions: In wrapping up this research paper, it’s clear that putting together gas sensors, environmental monitors, and health trackers into one system can really help make coal mines safer. During testing, the system did its job by catching unsafe situations early, which is exactly what’s needed underground. There were a few hiccups, like occasional sensor errors and some trouble with the network, but

those are problems that can be worked out with more work and regular checks. All in all, this project shows that with the right tools and a bit of fine-tuning, we can take real steps toward better safety for miners