**5.1 Field installation**

Generally, mine lease covers a wide area with a long lease boundary, and most of the boundaries are not fenced. Each mine has separate entry and exit gates which are the authorized routes for vehicle transportation and mine personnel. Entry through these authorized routes is usually controlled by installing an access control system comprising radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, RFID reader, Internet protocol (IP) based motorized boom barrier, signal lights, computer and integration software. The boom barrier opens the gate for entry or exit of the authorized vehicle or person only when the access control system reads the valid RFID tag assigned to the respective vehicle or person. Entry or exit through the rest of the significant mine lease boundary is unauthorized and prohibited. However, illegal mineral transportations are found from some mines through these unauthorized routes of mine boundaries. Hence, a periphery surveillance system has been developed by integrating radar, CCTV camera, wireless network, server and software for day and night surveillance of the mine lease boundary from a remote control room.

The system detects any vehicle or person entering through the particular unauthorized routes or boundary with simultaneous CCTV footage of the intrusion location. Further, it provides a real-time warning to the system's operator in the control room regarding the intrusion along with CCTV footage of the incidence. It saves the intrusion location and video footage with a time stamp, and these records of the log can be retrieved any time for further analysis. Thus, the system detects all intrusions. The control room operator verifies each intrusion through the respective CCTV footage whether the intruder is an authorized or unauthorized vehicle or person.

Field installation of the periphery surveillance system has been conducted at Tirap Opencast Coal Mine of North Eastern Coalfields (NEC), having latitude 27° 17<sup>0</sup> 35.09″ N and longitude 95°46<sup>0</sup> 10.29″ E. The microwave FMCW radar sensor and PTZ surveillance camera installed in the mine periphery of Tirap Opencast Coal Mine has shown in **Figure 6**.

An FMCW radar sensor, an integrated PTZ camera, and a wireless sensor network have been installed on few electric poles along with railway siding of the mine roadside. After the installation of the periphery surveillance system, the selected area has been kept under rigorous vigilance. There is multi-radar connectivity with a wireless network for real-time detection. Any intruding object can be detected through the sensor. The virtual framework of an integrated periphery surveillance system for opencast mine has been shown in **Figure 7**.

Suppose any unauthorized vehicle or any object is sensed to be entering into the boundary, in that case, wireless sensor nodes trigger an alarm and also send intrusion notifications to the central monitoring computer. The vehicle's position or a target is traced by the transmitting sensor node. Furthermore, long-distance PTZ cameras installed along with the radar sensor provide actual pictures of the intruders. A centralized observation station consists of a large digital display, computer, server, GPS antenna, walkie-talkie, alarm, centralized continuous power supply, etc. The arrangement of an integrated periphery surveillance system deployment has been shown in **Figure 8**. It is also equipped with software modules to track and perform real-time assignments and operations. The radar sensor node is also attached to a central monitoring station via a wireless sensor network. This station performs various tasks such as initiation of geo-fencing for each truck, tracking vehicle movement throughout its transportation route, assigning trucks in real-time, etc. It is also responsible for monitoring operating

### **Figure 6.**

*The microwave FMCW radar sensor and integrated PTZ surveillance camera were installed in the mine periphery of Tirap Opencast Coal Mine.*

### **Figure 7.**

*Virtual framework of an integrated periphery surveillance system for an opencast mine.*

threshold values for equipment and maintaining the database. The watching administrator also can communicate with the authorized supervisors about moving vehicles in the area. The central observing operator also generates an audible alarming signal in case of accidents, mineral theft, or illegal activities in the mine's excavation area. Performance of the system was also evaluated during severe weather conditions like foggy weather, heavy rain and dusty environment. It has been found that the version of the radar is not significantly affected during the said severe weather conditions.

*Intelligent Mine Periphery Surveillance Using Microwave Radar DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100521*

**Figure 8.** *Architecture of mine periphery surveillance system deployment.*

### **5.2 Observations and discussions**

**Figure 9** shows a snapshot for the distance-direction graph generated by using application software and a photograph taken by PTZ camera during these detections of incidences. The actual pictures are taken from the PTZ camera, real-time radar detection and distance graphs of different objects obtained during field experiments. Photographs show the presence of trucks and many persons. The interaction between the user and the high language software system has taken place in the application layer. It is implemented through a visual system simulator for front end simulation. The radar distance graph plots the continuous detection of intrusion along the mine periphery up to 400 m. The lines in different colors in the graphs correspond to the velocity and direction of varying mining vehicles or persons concerning the radar sensor's location. The other color lines represent different moving and stationary objects. The radar sensor generates an integrated volumetric perimeter detection zone. The developed application software is set to trigger an alarm if the thing crosses the boundary lines or attempts to cross the detection zone.

**Figure 9** represents screenshots of continuous radar view and CCTV video surveillance of a control room screen installed in an opencast coal mine site. Each line shows the radar detection location for a particular vehicle or person. The movement of each intruder is shown in the form of the path in the graph, i.e., X and Y coordinate concerning the location of radar and its center line, as shown in the left side graph of **Figure 9**. When an intruder is in stationery position, there will be no variation of the intrusion detection path displayed in the control room screen. Further, the respective detection line vanishes automatically from the display screen when an intruder crosses beyond the length and width of the radar detection range.

**Table 1** presents various data gathered by radar regarding trucks and different objects. This experimental fieldwork showcases the impact of real-time monitoring, tracking and sensing management systems using the developed application software. The developed method can capture single, double and multiple targets placed at various locations in the different test areas of a mine. Thus, it can detect the intruders and intruding objects like trucks and other vehicles to control illegal mining-related activities in the mining area.

**Figure 9.**

*View of real-time monitoring of the diverse position of periphery surveillance system at an opencast mine.*

Real-time data from the FMCW radar information are saved in the database by the application software and are extracted as given in **Table 1**. This object target information includes the following:




**Table 1.**

*The periphery surveillance system monitors parameters.*

