**Abstract**

This paper deals with an intelligent mine periphery surveillance system, which has been developed by CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad, India, as an aid for keeping constant vigilance on a selected area even in adverse weather conditions like foggy weather, rainy weather, dusty environment, etc. The developed system consists of a frequency modulated continuous wave radar, a pan-tilt camera, a wireless sensor network, a fast dedicated graphics processing unit, and a display unit. It can be spotting an unauthorized vehicle or person into the opencast mine area, thereby avoiding a threat to safety and security in the area. When an intrusion is detected, the system automatically gives an audiovisual warning at the intrusion site where the radar is installed as well as in the control room. The system has the facility to record the intrusion data as well as video footage with timestamp events in the form of a log. Further, the system has a long-range detection capability covering around 400 m distance with an integration facility using a dynamic wireless sensor network for deploying multiple systems to protect the extended periphery of an opencast mine. The field trial of this low-cost mine periphery surveillance system has been carried out at Tirap Opencast Coal Mine of North Eastern Coalfields in Margherita Area, Assam, India and it has proved its efficacy in preventing revenue loss due to illicit mining, unauthorized transportation of minerals, and ensuring safety and security of the mine to a great extent.

**Keywords:** microwave radar, FMCW, opencast mines, periphery surveillance, unauthorized vehicle intrusion detection

## **1. Introduction**

One of the crucial challenges of the mining sector is the prevention of financial loss due to illegal mining and mineral theft through an unauthorized path. This loss inflicts severe assault on the financial health of both the mining industry and government. Safety and security lapse is another worrisome aspect of this sector. Mining production highly depends on the safe interface between mining machinery and human being. Their proper and optimum utilization helps to maximize the production and productivity of a mine. Hence, protecting both these elements from safety and

security hazards is a matter of immense importance. This calls for strict vigilance in the mine periphery to prevent unauthorized intrusion of any vehicle or person. Taking due cognizance of the stated situation, an intelligent mine periphery surveillance system (PSS) has been developed by CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad, India, as a solution to these problems. Real-time detection of any suspected element or unwanted incidence by microwave radar and CCTV footage of the intruder is seen on the monitor, prompt alerting security personnel and thereby helps to avert untoward incidences by taking immediate action.

In recent years, microwave frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar has grown with demand in various domains. FMCW radars are found to realize the signals generated and processed in real-time for high-performance vehicle safety systems. The radar system has been employed in many safety applications, such as adaptive cruise control, crash mitigation and pre-crash sensing, to name a few. The FMCW radar can effectively detect moving and stationary target objects and are presently being marketed as safety systems for high-performance automotive applications as described by different authors [1–5]. This can also be applied in several other fields such as automotive applications, short-range radars for parking, traffic monitoring, anti-collision warning, adaptive cruise control, security, collision avoidance, defense, shipping, security, traffic, and medical imaging on under indoor and outdoor environments. The microwave FMCW radar security system is used for vehicle detection with a long detection range and high reliability, irrespective of environmental factors such as foggy weather, rain, dusty conditions etc. The range and velocity information of distinct targets may be measured concurrently in a short time for automotive safety applications. Various radar systems in use have been reported by several authors [6–14].

Unauthorized intrusion and illegal transportation of coal and minerals are significant issues about opencast mining industries. For example, in Tirap Opencast Mine, coal theft is widespread. The intrusion of illegal persons in this opencast mine is pervasive, leading to the unlawful transportation of coal and theft of mineral/coal and small mining equipment from the mine. Thus, there is a loss of revenue due to the above illegal activities, which is a grave concern and needs attention. Coal production of the mine largely depends on the safe interface between mining equipment and human beings. Protecting the assets and personnel against any possible hazards and optimizing their application by real-time location monitoring and control will improve mine safety and lead to increased productivity. The areas must be protected against unauthorized intrusion to manage the potential hazards in the sensitive areas inside the mining premises. Therefore, anintelligent mine periphery surveillance system has been developed and deployed in the mine for the first time. The developed system played a significant role in checking out these problems as this industrialized device could monitor the area efficiently.

Besides the above, the environmental conditions in opencast mining areas are dusty, full of smoke, foggy during the winter, and heavy rain during the rainy season. Thus, it raises a big challenge. These areas have different issues like soil erosion and dust coming from coal particles, leading to air and water pollution. These impact the environment and thus impact biodiversity as well. In recent years, the accumulation rate of waste dumps increased gradually, resulting in the great height of the waste dumps having a minimum ground cover area that created a danger to the environment. Illegal mining in the area marked with uneven slopes with an open pit is hazardous as it makes a warning bell for the human being and other animals living in the area. Open-pit slopes create disadvantages for mining industries as mining machinery cannot be used smoothly. There is always a chance

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

of damage to machines due to land conditions created due to illegal mining as there is a lack of proper planning. Thus, there is a need for continuous monitoring and surveillance in that area which is a big challenge as the atmosphere in that area is full of dust and bad weather. Microwave FMCW radar is very suitable in these environmental conditions for surveillance and monitoring. It does not impact dust, vapor or waste particles suspended in the air, foggy weather, and rain. FMCW radar signals processing is good at different weather conditions such as humidity, snow, fog, rain, and dusty conditions. The microwave FMCW radar security system, is used for vehicle detection with a long detection range and high reliability. The objective of this experimental work is to showcase the impact of using our real-time monitoring and tracking, sensing and management system using surveillance microwave FMCW radar for controlling mineral overloading, coal theft and illicit mineral transportation from the mines, improving mine safety, security, and productivity management.

Mining activities form an essential part of the financial increase of any nation endowed with mineral resources. Unauthorized mining, vehicle overloading, adequate transparencies during mineral transportation, enhancement of equipment optimization and production scheduling, downtime of shovels and dumpers, etc., are some of the main concerns in opencast mines. As an obvious outcome of searching for proper solutions to these problems, recent decades have witnessed wide applications of communication, sensing, surveillance, and vehicle detection technologies.

In this field of research and investigation, the authors have put a pretty good step forward by developing a "microwave radar-based periphery surveillance system" using the advanced vehicle tracking and surveillance technologies.

In this chapter, the FMCW radar sensor is briefly discussed. The FMCW radar is the best for accurately measuring the distance of multiple targets and identifying the intruder using a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera. The principles of FMCW radar for measuring distance change and detection of a target is presented in this paper. Its application for monitoring of transportation of coal at the Tirap coal mine in Assam, India, has been discussed. In this system, a real-time object detection technique is used to provide a clear multilevel description of the environment around it for constant vigilance. The PSS has been developed using an FMCW radar sensor to maintain high accuracy with precise range information, which helps stop illicit coal transportation through the mine lease boundary. Based on this auto-generated information, the user is free to mark any suspicious object and raise the alarm. The experimental results show that the system can accurately measure the distance of 400 m approximately along the mine periphery. The objective of the field experiment is to showcase the impact of using real-time monitoring and tracking, sensing and management system in which a developed system is used for detecting mineral overloading, coal theft and illicit mineral transportation from the mines and to improve mine safety and security. A digital oscilloscope has been used to analyze the actual performance of the FMCW radar system, and the output waveform is the raw data received from radar.
