Wireless Network for Mining Applications

This paper addresses the problem of people machine interaction presenting a framework to track the positions of interacting local agents in a mining type environment. The approach presented allows for the incorporation of additional sensing technology to add integrity and reliability to the tracking process and potentially reduce the uncertainty in the estimation of position of the agents. The system is based on a principle that we call virtual networks. These networks are formed in a local area where the agents interact. Each agent broadcasts a series of messages and updates the position information of the surrounding agents using statistical filtering techniques and models that best predict their behavior. The concept can also be applied to move information using agents that operate in larger domains. Experimental results of people tracking in mining application will be presented to demonstrate the main contributions of this paper.