A Database Design for Management of Time-Series Data in Underground Coalmines

As demand is increasing for real-time monitoring of mine parameters, demand is also increasing for appropriate data management in many mining applications. This includes time-series monitoring for underground coal and metal mines. Such data (which includes but is not limited to atmospheric parameters, ground control data, water quantity and quality data, etc.) assists operators and personnel at underground coal mines to determine whether or not conditions are safe for mining and allows them to run their operations more efficiently and safer. The placement of instrumentation sensors depends on the mine geometry, the design of each of the mine subsystems, in-situ conditions, power availability and other mine specific parameters. There are numerous real-time monitoring techniques that allow underground coal mines to monitor some of the data that are generated, such as gas concentrations and ventilation parameters, weather conditions, etc. Real-time monitoring can be used to determine if mine system or sub-system is functioning properly, which directly impacts daily health and safety, as well as production and efficiency. Although progress has been achieved in recent years because of the advent of electronics and data transmission systems, monitoring of mine conditions still presents challenges due to current limitations in available technologies in terms of accuracy, response time, range, sensitivity, and survivability. Real time analysis adds complexity to the system since data validation and storage should be completed independently of filtering, data reduction operations or visualization, Real time processing may include statistical evaluation, trending, cross-correlation and real time alarm or warning generation. 2. Development of a database management system A database management system will be developed to organize, present and analyze data collected by multiple sensors in underground coal mines. The system will have the following characteristics • It will conform to a client/server application paradigm, thus multiple users may use it at any given time • It will support multiple projects (i.e. multiple mines, or multiple mine sections depending on the areal break down) • It will be fully parametric (i.e. parameters will be user selectable) with respect to project definition, sensor/tag definition, data formatting, data grouping, etc. • It will be capable of importing data gathered by sensors and stored in common formats, i.e. csv, excel, dbf. This first version will not be capable of real time data acquisition • It will be capable of importing external data, i.e. data available by public or private weather stations • It will have charting and data correlation capabilities, which will be user selectable. • It will feature a map interface, i.e. the user will be capable of loading a dxf map, presenting different sensors on the map and selecting one or multiple sensors for display and cross – correlation.