Wireless Communication & Tracking

The state of play

Minerals Down Under Flagship

Mark Hedley CSIRO

Presentation Outline
Brief Introduction to CSIRO Part 1 Wireless Communications Part 2 General Tracking Systems Review
Motivation Approaches to Tracking Proximity Detection Continuous Tracking Frequency Bands

Part 3 CSIRO System WASP

Overview System Details Performance

Conclusion

Brief Introduction to CSIRO

CSIRO today: a snapshot

Australias national science agency One of the largest & most diverse in the world 6500+ staff over 55 locations Ranked in top 1% in 14 research fields 20+ spin-off companies in six years 160+ active licences of CSIRO innovation

Building national prosperity and wellbeing

Minerals Down Under Flagship

Creating impact in three key areas

Growing the resource base

Increasing productivity

Reducing environmental footprint

iron | copper | nickel | lead |zinc |uranium | gold | aluminium |magnesium

Ensuring the longevity of our industry

Global challenges require innovative solutions
CHALLENGES Environmental performance CREATING SOLUTIONS THROUGH

Collaborating with the best

Water availability Declining ore grades Working globally Increasing production costs Working in deeper mining environments Global skills shortage

Creating linkages between research, industry and the community

Working across the minerals value chain

Delivering world class R&D

Exploration

Mining

Processing

Metal production

Manufacturing

Minerals Down Under Flagship

Future Manufacturing Flagship

ICT Centre Research Laboratories

Wireless and Networking Technologies Creating a wireless world

ICT Centre Research Laboratories

Autonomous Systems ICT for the physical world

Information Engineering - Flexible information solutions

CSIRO Wireless and Networking Research Lab

World class excellence in Wireless Systems and Networking Research Proven record of generating high value IP and high quality publications Invention of WLAN Invention of the through-the-rock emergency communications World first 6 Gbps wireless link Key Skills Communication and Signal Processing Wireless Networking mm-Wave Technology Antennas and Propagation

Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 10

Wireless Communications

Wireless is Everywhere
Increasing use of wireless in society
Smart phones Wireless Local Area Networks Wireless broadband to homes (NBN 4% wireless, 3% satellite) Tracking (e.g. GPS) Health (e.g. Standoff monitoring of vital signs) Environmental monitoring Fundamental Science (e.g. Radio astronomy) Sensors (e.g. Multispectral, adaptive cruise)

Radio bandwidth is a scarce resource

Exponential growth in demand This is driving continual innovation and development of new standards

Mining is a small market in wireless, and must leverage developments and standards in other areas
Chipsets and standards

Wireless Communications
Continual demand for
Higher data rates (video) Lower latency Increased mobility Increased reliability / availability Decreased cost / size

Scales
No universal solution Many standards
Last Mile

Wireless Issues
Wireless is never completely reliable
Plan systems to be fail safe
E.g. Collision avoidance and tele-operation

Can improve using

Redundancy Multi-modal operation

Deployment a black art?

Radio propagation difficult to model in complex and dynamic environments

Security Interference
If possible control spectrum usage Monitor

Interoperability

Wireless Tracking

Motivation for Tracking

Tracking valuable for mining
Safety
Collision Avoidance

Situational Awareness Production monitoring Traffic monitoring and scheduling Automation

Underground
Cant use GPS! Monitor extraction from draw points in cave mining

Approaches to Tracking
Infrastructure Proximity Detection
e.g. RFID Pros widely used, low cost tags Cons need many readers for tracking, cannot use on surface, cannot be certain vehicle in zone, no data network

Approaches to Tracking
Infrastructure Proximity Detection
e.g. RFID Pros widely used, low cost tags Cons need many readers for tracking, cannot use on surface, cannot be certain vehicle in zone, no data network

Continuous Local Tracking

Pros Know location at all times, surface and underground, usually data network, potentially higher accuracy Cons more expensive tags and more complicated

Approaches to Tracking
Infrastructure Proximity Detection
e.g. RFID Pros widely used, low cost tags Cons need many readers for tracking, cannot use on surface, cannot be certain vehicle in zone, no data network

Continuous Local Tracking

Pros Know location at all times, surface and underground, usually data network, potentially higher accuracy Cons more expensive tags and more complicated

Peer to Peer Proximity Detection

Pros safety not rely on infrastructure Cons reduced situational awareness, problems around corners, no data network

Approaches to Tracking
Infrastructure Proximity Detection
e.g. RFID Pros widely used, low cost tags Cons need many readers for tracking, cannot use on surface, cannot be certain vehicle in zone, no data network

Continuous Local Tracking

Pros Know location at all times, surface and underground, usually data network, potentially higher accuracy Cons more expensive tags and more complicated

Peer to Peer Proximity Detection

Pros safety not rely on infrastructure Cons reduced situational awareness, problems around corners, no data network

Global Tracking GPS

Pro little infrastructure to install Con no data network, need satellite visibility

Proximity Detection
Asymmetric Techniques
RFID passive or active
Low cost and widely used, passive is very short range

Magnetic Bubble
Low frequency magnetic field created around vehicle (not person), some penetration through rock (see around corners), large transmitter

Laser Scanner
Usually multiple line scanners, can detect untagged objects, large and expensive

Radar
Better dust penetration but lower resolution compared to laser scanner.

Symmetric Techniques
Radio Received Signal Strength (RSS)
Poor range estimated from RSS in dynamic environments

Radio Ranging
Requires high frequency signals, more complex equipment

Continuous Tracking
Can be integrated with wireless data network
With mesh network dont need cabled communications to each infrastructure node (unlike typical RFID readers)

Measured Signals between Vehicle and Infrastructure

Angle of Arrival (AoA)
not convenient to measure in such applications Poor accuracy for underground geometry

Received Signal Strength (RSS)

Can use normal wireless network (e.g. 802.11 WLAN) Highly affected by multipath reflections Can estimate range or calculate fingerprint
Fingerprint not sufficiently stable in underground environments

Time of Arrival (TOA)

Special hardware to measure Potentially more accuracy than RSS Less affected by multipath, movement of vehicles, etc Usually calculate range from TOA

Frequency Band
Frequency, bandwidth and power usually limited by spectral regulations Common frequency bands
VHF (30-300 MHz, wavelength 10-1 m) waveguide cutoff UHF (300 + MHz) 900 MHz (wavelength 0.33 m)
ISM, ZigBee, data modems,

2.4 GHz (wavelength 125 mm)

ISM, WLAN, ZigBee, Bluetooth,

5.8 GHz (wavelength 52 mm)

ISM, WLAN, video transmission, cordless phones,

As frequency increases
Pros: antenna size decreases, bandwidth increases Cons: electronics more complicated, propagation shorter distances, less around corners

CSIRO WASP Tracking System

Wireless Ad-hoc System for Positioning (WASP)

System developed to address challenging tracking and navigation applications. WASP system consists of
Anchor nodes fixed at known locations Mobile nodes attached to objects to track Location Server attached to any anchor node to compute locations of mobile nodes

Prototype hardware
Anchor and mobile nodes designed and deployed Highly flexible research platform Suitable for field deployments and application trials Operates in class licence bands 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz Based on commodity components

WASP System
Location Server
Computes mobile node location Provides diagnostics Real time location display

Accuracy depends upon radio environment:

0.1 m line of sight outdoors 0.2 m LOS indoors (metal) ~ 1m NLOS indoors

Processing
Super-resolution measurement of Time of Arrival (TOA) Calculate range Calculate mobile location Up to 200 location updates / sec

Design Parameters
Applications require radio localisation and tracking system
High localisation accuracy
Better than 0.5 m for sports applications line of sight Typically 1-2 m for public safety applications through building materials Must perform in presence of severe multipath interference

High update rate

Minimum 10 location updates per second for sports applications Typically one location update per second for other applications

Suitable for rapid deployment

Does not rely on any existing infrastructure No cabling between nodes Does not require knowledge of building maps or signal survey

Provides data communications

Forms robust mobile ad hoc network

Technical Overview of WASP

System based on measurement of Time of Arrival (TOA) All nodes periodically transmit a beacon
Data OFDM at 4 Mbps (BPSK) or 8Mbps (QPSK) Time stamped signal designed for accurate TOA measurement

Uses 5.8 GHz class licence (ISM) frequency band

125 MHz bandwidth Maximum 100 mW transmit power

Custom communication stack to support localisation

Support mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) Medium Access Controller (MAC) uses time division multiple access (TDMA) Supports three types of data transport
Beacon payload Reserved slots Contention access in free slots

WASP Operation

TDMA Scheme each node transmits once per superframe Allows higher update rate than conventional pair ranging

WASP Node Types

Standard Large Base Station 115 x 90 x 55 mm
TOA, TDOA, RSSI - RF measurements

Enhanced Large INS 115 x 90 x 75 mm

TOA, TDOA, RSSI - RF measurements 3 axis: Accelerometer; Gyro; Magnetometer

Minimised Small Tag 90 x 50 x 25 mm (credit card 86 x 54)

TOA, TDOA, RSSI - RF measurements Enhanced INS

Standard

Tag

Performance Evaluation - Range

Figure: Range error distribution and best fitting Gaussian

The best fitting Gaussian has a 0.12 m standard deviation

Underground Performance

Quarry Tracking Performance

Conclusion
Future mine operations will involve increased remote operation and automation
More stringent requirements for personnel safety Require whole of site situational awareness and reliable proximity detection Can also be used to benefit productivity Reliable radio links and complete mine coverage will become increasingly important
Mines must manage and monitor spectrum

Many technologies for tracking and proximity detection

None is perfect Need to integrate with communication system Robust solutions will need to be multimodal

CSIRO has developed WASP technology

Provides radio communication, proximity detection and tracking Accurate even with substantial multipath

CSIRO ICT Centre Mark Hedley Project Leader Wireless Localisation Phone: +61 2 9371 4236 Email: Mark.Hedley@csiro.au

Thank you
Contact Us Phone: 1300 363 400 or +61 3 9545 2176 Email: Enquiries@csiro.au Web: www.csiro.au