Third Generation Positioning System for
Underground Mine Environments:
An update on progress
Binghao Li
ACSER, School of EE&T, UNSW Australia
+61-2-93850783, binghao.li@unsw.edu.au
Kai Zhao, Serkan Saydam
School of Mining Engineering, UNSW Australia
Chris Rizos
School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW Australia
Jian Wang
School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, CUMT, China
Qiang Wang
College of Applied Science and Technology, CUMT, China,
ABSTRACT
Positioning in underground mining environments is a key
requirement for ensuring the safety of mine workers. It is also a
critical technological capability in resolving mine productivity
bottlenecks, which has a great economic impact in Australia.
Australia is one of the world’s largest mining nations and a
significant player in mining-related research and development. To
support the growth of the mining sector, innovative technologies
need to be developed, with underground positioning an important
though significant engineering challenge.
An Australian Research Council Linkage Project (ARCLP) granted
in 2015 aims to demonstrate a robust high accuracy positioning
system for underground mining environments to meet the
requirements of worker safety and mine efficiency improvement.
This paper reports on the latest progress of this project.
KEYWORDS: Underground; Indoor positioning;
1. INTRODUCTION
The safety of mine workers is one of the highest priorities of Australia’s mining
industry. When an accident occurs, the immediate initiation of a search and rescue
