SMART HELMET FOR COAL MINERS

By

Hassan Ilyas
BEE173053

Mohammad Nasir Ali

BEE173067

Abraash Bin Tahir

BEE173060

A Project Report submitted to the

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
BACHELORS OF SCIENCE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Faculty of Engineering
Capital University of Science & Technology,
Islamabad
February, 2021
 Copyright @ 2021 by CUST Student

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form requires the prior
written permission of Hassan Ilyas, Muhammad Nasir Ali, Abraash Bin Tahir or
designated representative.

ii
 DECLARATION
It is declared that this is an original piece of my own work, except where otherwise
acknowledged in text and references. This work has not been submitted in any form for
another degree or diploma at any university or other institution for tertiary education
and shall not be submitted by me in future for obtaining any degree from this or any
other University or Institution.

Hassan Ilyas
BEE173053

Mohammad Nasir Ali

BEE173067

Abraash Bin Tahir

BEE173060

February, 2021

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 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
It is certified that the project titled “Smart Helmet for Coal Miners using Zig bee” carried
out by Hassan Ilyas, Reg. No. BEE173053, Mohammad Nasir Ali Reg. No. BEE173067,
Abraash Bin Tahir Reg. No. BEE173060, under the supervision of Dr. Noor Muhammad
Khan, Capital University of Science & Technology, Islamabad, is fully adequate, in
scope and in quality, as a final year project for the degree of BS Electrical Engineering.

Supervisor: --------------------------------------
Engr. Muhammad Waleed Farooq
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
Capital University of Science & Technology, Islamabad

HOD: --------------------------------------
Dr. Noor Mohammad Khan
Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
Capital University of Science & Technology, Islamabad

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to pay my gratitude to my supervisor Engr. Muhammad Waleed Farooq
who helped us and guided in every aspect of the project even he provided us the main
information through which the communication algorithm was designed. While writing
the report Engr. Muhammad Waleed Farooq guided me with the problems which I was
going to face. So, I would like to thank our project supervisor, Engr. Muhammad
Waleed Farooq, whose contribution in stimulating suggestions and encouragement,
helped me to coordinate my project especially in writing this report.

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 ABSTRACT
The aim of the project is to design a wireless helmet for coal miners using Zig bee
wireless technology. Every year miners lose their lives because they don’t have proper
equipment’s to counter the worst mine conditions. In previous two years 164 miners lost
their lives in Baluchistan and 300 got injured. The initiative of the project is to save
human lives. This project has qualities like it detects the gases that are dangerous for
human health, it will also measure the humidity in the mine and the persons oxygen level
to ensure that he is not inhaling the dangerous gases in excess. This helmet will have a
dust mask for safety purpose. In case of harmful condition, the buzzer on the helmet will
generate alarm to alert the miners and wireless Zig-Bee will also transmit all the data to
base station for quick response. The system will compose of powerful primarily Zig-Bee
based wireless mine supervising system. The application follows Zig Bee Wi-Fi
technology to build wireless sensor networks, which will provide real-time surveillance
with early-warning intelligence system on temperature, leakage of gas in mining place,
health condition of miners and alerting the control station. The gadget is used to lessen
capacity safety issues in coal production so backup security can move in mines for safety
of human lives.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................. iii
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL .................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ....................................................................................................v
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................x
LIST OF ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................. xi
Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................1
1.1 Overview .............................................................................................................1
1.2 Project Idea ..........................................................................................................1
1.3 Purpose of the Project .........................................................................................2
1.4 Project Specifications ..........................................................................................2
1.5 Applications of the Project ..................................................................................2
1.6 Project Plan ..............................................................................................................3
1.6.1 Project Milestones .............................................................................................3
1.7 Report Organization ............................................................................................3
Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................4
2.1 Background Theory .............................................................................................4
2.2 Related Technologies ..........................................................................................4
2.2.1 Mesh .............................................................................................................5
2.2.2 WLAN..........................................................................................................5
2.2.3 Node MCU: ..................................................................................................6
2.3 Related Projects ...................................................................................................6
2.3.1 Home Security System using Zig-Bee Wirelessly .......................................6
2.3.2 Zig-Bee based Defense Robot .....................................................................7
2.3.3 Smart helmet for Advanced Factory Environment ......................................8
2.4 Limitations and Bottlenecks of the Existing Work .............................................8
2.5 Summary .............................................................................................................8
Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................................9

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PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION .............................................................9
3.1 Proposed Design Methodology ...........................................................................9
3.2 Analysis Procedure ..............................................................................................9
3.3 Design of the Project Hardware ........................................................................10
3.4 Design of the Project software/algorithm..........................................................10
3.5 Details of Simulations: ......................................................................................11
3.6 Simulation Results.............................................................................................12
3.6.1 OUTPUT ....................................................................................................12
3.7 Summary ...........................................................................................................13
Chapter 4 ..........................................................................................................................14
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES .........................................................................................14
4.1 Hardware Tools .................................................................................................14
4.1.1 Arduino ......................................................................................................14
4.1.2 Zig bee Series 2 ..........................................................................................15
4.1.3 DHT11 .......................................................................................................15
4.2 Software’s and Simulation Tools ......................................................................16
4.2.1 Arduino ...........................................................................................................16
4.2.2 Zigbee..............................................................................................................17
4.2.3 DHT11 ............................................................................................................17
4.2.4 Virtual Terminal ..............................................................................................17
4.3 Summary ...........................................................................................................17
Chapter 5 ..........................................................................................................................18
PROJECT RESULTS AND EVALUATION ..................................................................18
5.1 Presentation of the findings ...............................................................................18
5.1.1 Hardware Results .......................................................................................18
5.1.2 Software Results ........................................................................................19
5.2 Summary ...........................................................................................................20
Chapter 6 ..........................................................................................................................21
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK ........................................................................21

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Zigbee series 2 ....................................................................................................4

Figure 2:Mesh topology .....................................................................................................5
Figure 3:WLAN Communication ......................................................................................5
Figure 4:Node MCU ..........................................................................................................6
Figure 5:Home security using Zigbee ................................................................................7
Figure 6: Defense robot using Zigbee ................................................................................7
Figure 7:Smart Helmet for Factory ....................................................................................8
Figure 8: Block diagram of Design ....................................................................................9
Figure 9: XCTU COM port selection window................................................................10
Figure 10: XCTU configuration tab ................................................................................11
Figure 11: Simulation.......................................................................................................12
Figure 12: Output .............................................................................................................12
Figure 13: Arduino UNO .................................................................................................14
Figure 14: Zigbee S2 ........................................................................................................15
Figure 15: Zigbee specifications ......................................................................................15
Figure 16: DHT11 Sensor ................................................................................................16
Figure 17: Proteus logo ....................................................................................................16
Figure 18: Arduino Proteus view .....................................................................................16
Figure 19: Zigbee PROTEUS view .................................................................................17
Figure 20: DHT11 PROTEUS view ...............................................................................17
Figure 21: Virtual terminal Proteus View ........................................................................17
Figure 22: Sending Side ...................................................................................................18
Figure 23: Receiving side ................................................................................................18
Figure 24: Software results ..............................................................................................19
Figure 25: Output of simulation .......................................................................................19

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1:Project Specifications ...........................................................................................2

Table 2:Project Milestones.................................................................................................3

x
 LIST OF ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS

WMN Wireless mesh network

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

Zig-Bee Zonal Intercommunication Global-standard

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
In the start of mining era helmets with normal LED light were used in the small and
medium mines because of their light weight and low power consumption, but 0% safety
was assured, with the introduction of Zigbee wireless technology it is preferred the most
because of its ability to develop wireless networks and transmit and receive collected
data wirelessly, so potential security issues can be tackled. Xbee radios from DIGI
International are used for creating wireless network to collect data from mines and
transfer to the base station.

1.1 Overview
To overcome the mine safety issues wireless helmet for coal miners using Zigbee
wireless technology is proposed. The initiative of the project is to save human lives.
This project has qualities like it detects the gases that are dangerous for human health,
it will also measure the humidity in the mine and the persons oxygen level to ensure
that he is not inhaling the dangerous gases in excess. This helmet will have a dust mask
for safety purpose. In case of harmful condition, the buzzer on the helmet will generate
alarm to alert the miners and wireless Zig-Bee will also transmit all the data to base
station for quick response. The system will compose of powerful primarily ZigBee
based wireless mine supervising system. The application follows ZigBee Wi-Fi
technology to build wireless sensor networks, which will provide real-time surveillance
with early-warning intelligence system on temperature, leakage of gas in mining place,
health condition of mine and alerting the control station. The gadget is used to lessen
capacity safety issues in coal production so backup security can move in mines for
safety of human lives.

1.2 Project Idea

Our proposed design will dramatically increase the life expectancy of the coal miners
by way of alerting them about the dangers. In our system, the helmet is having the
circuit with 3 sensors i.e., Temperature, humidity and gasoline to tackle the situations
in coal mine.

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 1.3 Purpose of the Project
Every year miners lose their lives because they don’t have proper equipment’s to
counter the worst mine conditions. In previous two years 164 miners lost their lives in
Baluchistan and 300 got injured. In case of any hazardous situation inside the mine the
helmet gives the facts to the control station through the zig bee transmitter and the
manipulate station will alert the coal miner using the zig bee receiver by way of making
the buzzer active that's located within the helmet so that a miner can have a threat to
rescue his existence from the risks came about in coal mines.

1.4 Project Specifications

Table 1:Project Specifications

Arduino For collecting information from

sensors.

Sensors (Temperature, Methane, For collecting data from environment.

Humidity)

Zigbee One for sending data collected by

Arduino from sensors and second for
receiving.

1.5 Applications of the Project

 Useful for the persons working underground.

 Suitable to tackle any climate condition inside of mine.

 Valid for distant communication almost 30 feet

 Efficiently transmit and receive information.

2
 1.6 Project Plan
Earlier similar projects are checked beforehand. As this project has already been
implemented in many forms in the past, literature review is very helpful and took a
week. Due to the pandemic constraints, working on software implementation, coding
and report.

1.6.1 Project Milestones

This is how our project is distributed in different parts so that it can be implemented
easily.

Table 2:Project Milestones

S# Tasks Duration Resource Person

1 Literature Review 02 Weeks Nasir, Hassan
2 Algorithm 02 Weeks Abraash, Hassan
3 Simulation 04 Weeks Nasir, Abraash, Hassan

4 Sensor Installation 01 Week Nasir, Abraash

5 Arduino coding 02 Weeks Nasir, Abraash, Hassan

6 Zigbee interfacing 1 week Hassan, Abraash

1.7 Report Organization

The report is organized as:
 Chapter 1 is the overview.
 Chapter 2 covers previous projects and previous similar ideas.
 The third chapter discusses the software implementation.
 Fourth chapter has all the information relating to the tools used.
 The second last chapter discusses the results and evaluates them.
 Conclusions and possible recommendations are discussed at the last.

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Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
This task was picked and built after completely concentrating the ideas to develop the
required project and to achieve the required results. Analysis of this exploration is
talked about quickly beneath.

2.1 Background Theory

Zig-Bee is designed for remote automation and other lower data tasks, such as smart
home automation, remote monitoring and distant observing. Zig-Bee is a wireless
communication device which consumes low power and minimum effort. Zig-Bee is
suitable for commercial and domestic applications. It can provide an opportunity to
enhance the routing in communication.

Figure 1: Zigbee series 2

Zig-bee is basically used for two course correspondence between a sensor and a control
structure. It is a wireless communication device which can communicate the signal up
to 100 meters. Like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, it is a short range communication device. On
the other side, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are high data rate rules which maintain the trading
of media reports, programming, and so on.

2.2 Related Technologies

There are many technologies that use different ISM
band frequencies. Some of them are highlighted below.

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2.2.1 Mesh
Wireless mesh network is a communication network which is made up of radio nodes
that are organized in a mesh topology. Basically mesh topology is a network setup
where each device is interconnected with one another. It is topology which is mostly
used for wireless networks.

Figure 2:Mesh topology

2.2.2 WLAN
A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless network that links two or more using wireless
communication to communicate within a limited area such as at home, school,
laboratory and office. It also provides an opportunity for the users who are connected
that they can move around within the area and remain connected. Wireless LANs are
becoming popular now days in commercial properties because they offer wireless
access to their customers and employees.

Figure 3:WLAN Communication

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2.2.3 Node MCU:

Node MCU is basically a low cost open-source platform. It is based on a computer

code which is developed for the ESP8266 local area network chip. Some of the
advantages of Node MCU are as follow:
 It is low-cost Wi-Fi chip.
 Low consumption of energy.
 It reduces board size.

Figure 4:Node MCU

2.3 Related Projects

There are many projects which are based on Zig-Bee technology. Some of them are
mentioned below:

2.3.1 Home Security System using Zig-Bee Wirelessly

Zig-Bee basically uses two circuits like a transmitter and a collector. The transmitter
can be worked with three PIR sensors to show the development in different regions, a
region sensor is used to see the window whether that is closed or opened and a
temperature sensor is used to get the current temperature.
The recipient circuit can be worked with a Zig-Bee, GSM, and LCD where the ZigBee
gives less inaction correspondence. The correspondence between the transmitter and

6
recipient should be possible with the help of a Zig-Bee Module. At whatever point any
development is recognized by the PIR sensor, a notification can be sent to the person.

Figure 5:Home security using Zigbee

2.3.2 Zig-Bee based Defense Robot

These robots are arranged with a consolidated system that joins sensors, weapons,
video screens, cameras, and gripper. These robots are available in different shapes. So
here a robot is designed with the Zig-Bee association for the obscure people.
This robot can be obliged by Zig-Bee and PC to find the weapons similarly as
adversaries. It sends the information to the control live with the objective that basic
move can be made by the PC customer. This robot recognizes gas, temperature, and fire
in the environment. This robot gets the weapons with the help of an arm. By using Zig-
Bee correspondence, obstructions in faraway spots can be controlled.

Figure 6: Defense robot using Zigbee

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2.3.3 Smart helmet for Advanced Factory Environment

 Ensure Safety in Factory.

 Sensors will detect injuries, harmful gases and hazardous situation in factory.
 Transmit sensors information wireless to control room.
 In case of any emergency situation buzzer will generate alarm.
 Easy to carry.
 Light weighted and economical.

Figure 7:Smart Helmet for Factory

2.4 Limitations and Bottlenecks of the Existing Work

Some of the limitations are as follow:

 Zig-Bee disadvantages mainly include short range.

 It has low complexity and data speed.
 Zig-Bee is not secure like Wi-Fi based secured system.

2.5 Summary
This chapter discusses the projects and technologies related to this project. It also
explains limitations of all these methods and a problem statement to overcome these
limitations.

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Chapter 3

PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

In order to get desired results out of our project so that it delivers all the specifications
it offers, first of all research work has done and we came to know how to implement
our project and which components are required to design our project and software used
for the implementation of our project.

3.1 Proposed Design Methodology

This is the block diagram of our project showing a microcontroller, ZigBee for wireless
data transmission a temperature, humidity, methane sensor.

Figure 8: Block diagram of Design

3.2 Analysis Procedure

In our project Arduino is used along with Zigbee and to transmit data collected from
the sensors and transmit it wirelessly too other Zigbee and to the base station. This
work can also be done using Node MCU but it difficult to handle in respect of

9
programing and bit expensive as compare to ZigBee. So that’s why Zigbee is preferred
in our project to wirelessly transmit data.

3.3 Design of the Project Hardware

In our project Arduino is used to collect data from the sensors like temperature,
humidity and methane. Sensors are supplied with 5v and ground is attached through
Arduino. After it collect the data from sensors the data is transferred to the Zigbee by
connecting RX pin of Arduino to the TX pin of Zigbee and TX pin of Arduino to the
RX pin of ZigBee. The receiver side consist of Arduino and Zigbee connected to each
other as sending side Zigbee is connected to Arduino. It receives anything that is
transmitted wirelessly.

3.4 Design of the Project software/algorithm

In order to make the hardware run properly Arduino is programmed according to
sensors attached and the Zigbee is programmed using XCTU software in order to send
and receive data wirelessly ZigBee’s have to program and certain perimeters need to
be set.
 Open XCTU software
 Connect the Zigbee with the laptop which need to be programmed.

Figure 9: XCTU COM port selection window

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After we discover the attached devices we have to follow the procedure mention below.
For a Zigbee to communicate wirelessly coordinator and receiver ZigBee’s have PAN
ID has be the same for coordinator JV option needs to be enabled.

Figure 10: XCTU configuration tab

3.5 Details of Simulations:

For simulation purpose PROTEUS software is used, different tools of proteus is used
to create the simulation so that hardware implementation of the project can accelerate.
Arduino is also used in our project as we have to program the Arduino according to
the sensors attached and have to write the code for the sensors to work properly and
hex file of code has to be used in Arduino to run the simulation properly. First of all,
we have placed the Arduino at the work place of PROTEUS we attached the DHT11
that is temperature and humidity sensor, a virtual terminal and Zigbee is attached on
other side receiver setup is arranged and we get our desired results

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3.6 Simulation Results

This is the simulation of our project which we have implemented in FYP part 1.

Figure 11: Simulation

3.6.1 OUTPUT
After constructing the desired circuit this is the output, we get which shows the real
time temperature and humidity of the surroundings, and can easily detects any change
in the temperature and humidity.

Figure 12: Output

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3.7 Summary
In this chapter a detailed description of project design and implementation procedure is
described how software simulation is implemented and how Hardware is attached
which software’s are used for the simulation and the programing of ZigBee’s.

13
Chapter 4

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

In or project the hardware tools that are used consist of Arduino, Zig Bee, and sensors
that consist of Humidity, methane and temperature sensors.

4.1 Hardware Tools

4.1.1 Arduino
Arduino is a general-purpose microcontroller development board based AVR
microcontroller atmega328p shown in figure below.

Figure 13: Arduino UNO

Arduino Uno has built-in ADC which is very useful for our project. The reason is this
because we have to sense the voltage and current of load, which is leveled down as
actual reading are 0-250 ac voltage and current of several amperes, the reading of this
caliber cannot be directly feed to Arduino ADC but they have to be in a range of 0-5v
range, means both voltage and current must be represented in terms of this voltage
scale This Arduino development board also provide us with regulated 5v and 3.3v
power supplies which helped us greatly to power up Xbee radios which work on 3.3v
and LCD module which worked on 5v.

14
 4.1.2 Zig bee Series 2
Zigbee is the radio module from DIGI international that is mainly used for creating
networks. Through this module we create local network that will transfer data from
each house to the central data collection point to be ready to transmit to grid station
through GSM module.

Figure 14: Zigbee S2

The specifications of Zig bee radio are shown in tables below:

Figure 15: Zigbee specifications

4.1.3 DHT11
It measures both moisture and air temperature. It represents humidity in percent’s as
compare to the ratio of actual moisture and the moisture air that temperature can hold

15
The warmer the air is, the more moisture it can hold, so relative humidity changes with
fluctuations in temperature

Figure 16: DHT11 Sensor

4.2 Software’s and Simulation Tools

For simulation purpose PROTEUS is used. It is easy to handle tool for simulation. Each
component is easily available and handling is easy too.

Figure 17: Proteus logo

4.2.1 Arduino

Figure 18: Arduino Proteus view

16
4.2.2 Zigbee

Figure 19: Zigbee PROTEUS view

4.2.3 DHT11

Figure 20: DHT11 PROTEUS view

4.2.4 Virtual Terminal

Figure 21: Virtual terminal Proteus View

4.3 Summary
This chapter include all the hardware and software tools include for the completion of
the project. It also describes how they work and how we used them in our project.

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Chapter 5

PROJECT RESULTS AND EVALUATION

After performing all the desired research, simulation and hardware interfacing the
desired results are achieved and is display in this chapter along with brief explanation.

5.1 Presentation of the findings

Performing the simulation on the software and implementing it on the hardware and
interfacing the sensors and Zig bee our results are achieved. Data is wirelessly
transmitted and received and displayed on the screen.

5.1.1 Hardware Results

Figure 22: Sending Side

This is the sending side of our project it consists of temperature and humidity sensor
that is connected to our microcontroller which is Arduino, it collects data from sensors
and send to the Zig bee which can wirelessly transmit the data to another Zig bee having
same PAN ID.

Figure 23: Receiving side

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This is the receiving side of our project it consists of a microcontroller Arduino and
Zig bee this Zig bee is interlinked with the Zig bee at the sending side which can be
done using the software XCTU. This part collect the data that is wirelessly send from
the transmitting side and display it on the screen.
5.1.2 Software Results

Figure 24: Software results

This is the simulation that is implemented on PROTEUS before the components should
place physically. It consists of Arduino, virtual terminal to see the results a temperature
and humidity sensor and Zig bees to transmit and receive data.

This is the output that is achieved from the software simulation using virtual terminal

that shows the real time temperature and humidity.

Figure 25: Output of simulation

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 Table 5.1: Software Testing Results

Conditions Testing
Sensor 1 Temperature sensor is attached to the Arduino on the proteus software and tested
weather it works properly or not.

Sensor 2 Humidity sensor is also attached and tested to insure the progress of project

Zig bee Finally, Zig bee is also tested on software to check whether it works properly and
transmit and receive data.
LCD Test We first tested the LCD by printing the “Hello Word” on it by programming at
Arduino software latter sensors were attached to see the proper results

5.2 Summary
This chapter focuses on the hardware and software results of the project. It describes
in detail about the software simulation how it is performed and show the results and
describes about the interfacing of hardware components and achieving the desired
results.

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Chapter 6

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

Our project will ensure the safety of coal miners as Zigbee can wirelessly transmit and
receive data with base station. In case of emergency situation sensors will transmit data
to the Arduino and Zigbee will carry the data wireless so that rescue team can provide
first aid and can save miner lives. Our project is suitable for all mines condition because
features we offer can tackle all harmful mine condition as compared to the helmets
used before. Project will focus on node-node communication which is suitable in case
of emergency because data is transferred in between nodes and the base station and all
helmets are interlinked so that information is transmitted to each helmet and this
communication increases the safety factor as compare to centralized node scheme.

21