Assessing the Feasibility of a Commercially Available Wireless Internet of Things System to Improve Conveyor Safety
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Assessing the Feasibility of a Commercially Available Wireless Internet of Things System to Improve Conveyor Safety R. Jacksha 1 & K. V. Raj 1 Received: 8 May 2020 / Accepted: 28 September 2020 # This is a U.S. government work and its text is not subject to copyright protection in the United States; however, its text may be subject to foreign copyright protection 2020
Abstract Conveyor systems persist in being a source of injuries and fatalities in the mining industry. To reduce these incidents, better methods are needed to enhance the monitoring of probable hazards and improve situational awareness during the normal operation and maintenance of conveyor systems. To address these issues, researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) continue to investigate emerging technologies that show the potential to improve miner safety around conveyors. This paper presents a feasibility assessment by NIOSH researchers of a fully integrated, commercially available wireless Internet of Things (IoT) system to improve situational awareness around conveyor systems. Included are discussions of a full-scale laboratory test bed that was designed to simulate a working conveyor system as well as the challenges and successes of integrating the IoT system with the test bed. Keywords Internet of Things . Conveyor safety . Data acquisition . Wireless communication
1 Introduction Injuries and fatalities associated with conveyor systems at sand and gravel mining operations continue to be a problem in the mining industry. Research performed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) showed that from 2000 to 2007, 14% of all mining-related accidents involved conveyors, with most accidents occurring at surface operations [1]. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has also recognized this problem, stating in a recent request for information (RFI): “Since 2007, there have been 17 fatalities related to working near or around belt conveyors, of which 76 percent were related to miners becoming entangled in belt drives, belt rollers, and discharge points. Factors that contribute to entanglement hazards include inadequate or missing guards, inadequate or an insufficient number of crossovers in strategic locations, and/or inappropriate lock out/tag out procedures. Systems that can sense a miner’s presence in hazardous locations; ensure that machine guards are properly secured in place; and/or ensure machines are
* R. Jacksha [email protected] 1
CDC/NIOSH/Spokane Mining Research Division, 315 E Montgomery Ave., Spokane, WA 99207, USA
properly locked out and tagged out during maintenance would reduce fatalities” [2]. To address the problem of entanglement-related accidents, NIOSH researchers continue to investigate emerging technologies that may be beneficial in improving conveyor safety, specifically through enhanced situational awareness. In 2013, NIOSH researchers reported on a wireless miner tracking system, which was repurposed to provide intelligent machine guard monitori
