In a nutshell, Nexsys connects to all the underground mine’s sensors, monitoring and safety systems, holding the information in a single database.

The software analyses the data, with necessary information provided to various mine personnel. Warnings are sent out to key staff in the event of recognised safety risks, with the system automatically acting on potential emergency situations before they get worse.

Mackay-based Mining Logic Solutions is working on the final six months of system testing as part of an exclusive, global licensing agreement with CSIRO to commercially develop Nexsys.

MLS director Dean Kirkwood told International Longwall News the company was heading back to Xstrata Coal’s highly productive Beltana longwall mine along with Anglo Coal’s Grasstree longwall operation within the next fortnight to stress test the system in full production.

“The alarms have been proven to be able to work properly and to work to a certain level of stress,” he said.

“But the main testing from now on will attempt to break the system, and if that happens, to see what fallbacks are in place to ensure that the system delivers the critical information to mine personnel.”

MLS has made various changes to the software inherited from the CSIRO and is in the process of making it more robust.

Kirkwood said the user interface was being overhauled to become more user-friendly and that MLS had boosted the speed of the system, with information coming to the computer screen much faster than before.

Two other areas of testing for Nexsys cover anomaly detection and predictive learning.

Kirkwood said the anomaly detection aspect of Nexsys would have the system identifying whether information sent by a sensor was critical to the operation or was a temporary non-threatening occurrence.

An example of the outcome from the anomaly detection analysis, Kirkwood said, is the detection of a vehicle passing a gas monitoring system and consequently spiking the readings because of the diesel fumes.

He said the predictive learning component of Nexsys would be able to use historical and current data to determine if conditions leading to a major incident were present in the mine. In such conditions, Nexsys would sound the alarm and notify staff of the corrective measures to stop a situation reaching critical mass.

With the system available on the desktops of engineers and managers on the surface, Nexsys will automatically send warnings straight to key staff and provide the information needed to make appropriate decisions in time-critical situations, thus acting as a decision support tool.

While Nexsys has been in development for a good chunk of this decade, Kirkwood said the system would be up-to-date with all the improvements in various mining-related technologies, including recent advances made with intrinsically safe wireless vehicle and personnel tracking systems.

Kirkwood also referenced what project founder Greg Rowan recently said about Nexsys.

“Rowan said, ‘Even though the idea for this product is probably six or seven years old, the niche in the market has never been filled so the actual technology behind it is still relevant.’”

There has been very keen interest from the industry to take up Nexsys once it is launched.

“We see it as a vital advance for underground coal mines,” Kirkwood said.

“It is moving the safety and incident management to a level that has never been seen before, so it’s something that is extremely important to be in the marketplace as quickly as possible.”

Kirkwood added that MLS was ahead of schedule and was hoping to launch Nexsys by October or November this year.

The system’s set-up will vary from mine to mine and depend on the systems already in place, but most of all on the customer’s specific needs at the time of installation and future requirements.

While MLS faced considerable competition for its partnership with CSIRO to commercially develop Nexsys, Kirkwood said the company could not only develop the product and take it to market, but also provide a turnkey solution to the mining industry, as MLS had the engineers and electricians to ensure the technical support expertise required for such a system.

“We can provide the mine with a complete turnkey solution for it.”

Once successfully launched in Australia, Kirkwood said MLS would market the product all around the world.