Application of wireless sensor network for environmental monitoring in underground coal mines: A systematic review

The production, productivity and safety of underground coal mines are greatly affected by the environmental conditions of the mines. Hence, continuous monitoring of the complex and hazardous mine environment is essential for ensuring safe coal production. Nowadays, wireless sensor network (WSN) technique is widely used for monitoring of workplace environment and other aspects in underground coal mines. This paper presents a systematic literature review on the state-of-the-art researches on application of WSN in underground coal mines and to identify the gray areas needing more attention for wide application of WSN technique. Advanced search is conducted on various digital libraries for extracting relevant studies for the review. The search strategy identified 762 studies, among which 52 relevant studies are selected for thorough review. Application of WSN for monitoring of environmental parameters and other aspects in underground coal mines, such as mine gases, temperature and humidity, dust, fire, roof fall, etc. are discussed. Moreover, the need for further research for effective utilization of WSN technique and application of new advanced techniques for efficient monitoring of underground coal mines are explored in this paper.