Hardware Design for In-Mine Positioning System

This thesis describes the hardware design of a
positioning system which locates a vehicle relative
to a digital map of an underground mine. The mines
of interest arepotash mines of Saskatchewan, and
they are at a depth of approximately 1000 meters and
they cover an area larger than 10 kilometers by 10
kilometers. An important application of an in-mine
positioning system is tracking a ground penetrating
radar system. Ground penetrating radar is used to
determine the current condition of the mine ceiling
and to evaluate its risk of delamination. A ground
penetrating radar system is driven along a mine
tunnel and measurements are logged. It is necessary
to record position information along with the radar
signal and this can be done with the aid of a
positioning system.

The design and evaluation of the hardware system
that supports a positioning system, which can locate
a vehicle inside a mine tunnel with reasonable
accuracy and cost is described here. The
hardware system includes a dead reckoning system,
which is built using MEMS accelerometerand gyroscope
sensors and ultrasonic distance sensors, along with
a data acquisition system.

Autorentext

Abu Maqsud was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He finished his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Klappentext

This thesis describes the hardware design of a positioning system which locates a vehicle relative to a digital map of an underground mine. The mines of interest arepotash mines of Saskatchewan, and they are at a depth of approximately 1000 meters and they cover an area larger than 10 kilometers by 10 kilometers. An important application of an in-mine positioning system is tracking a ground penetrating radar system. Ground penetrating radar is used to determine the current condition of the mine ceiling and to evaluate its risk of delamination. A ground penetrating radar system is driven along a mine tunnel and measurements are logged. It is necessary to record position information along with the radar signal and this can be done with the aid of a positioning system.The design and evaluation of the hardware system that supports a positioning system, which can locate a vehicle inside a mine tunnel with reasonable accuracy and cost is described here. The hardware system includes a dead reckoning system, which is built using MEMS accelerometerand gyroscope sensors and ultrasonic distance sensors, along with a data acquisition system.