Detection of mine roof failure using inexpensive LiDAR technology

"Slope, Roof, and mine wall stability problems are some of the main reasons for deaths at U.S. surface or underground mining. The safety instruments were not enough to prevent that failure or even predict it before it occurs. However, the cost of such a tool that can be helpful in detecting roof failures is very high and not reachable in most instances.The present study investigates the feasibility of using the M16 Leddar Evaluation Kit to detect the roof failure in mines. The M16 Leddar Evaluation kit cost is between 300$-800$, so it is the reachable price if it provides the required safety in mines. In fact, the underground mines have many openings, so the needs for instruments that can be distributed in all tunnels and safe all workers are urgent. The Leica Scan Station P40-3D Laser Scanner costs $123915.00, so in mine industry, it is not worthy to establish the mining with such high cost like that. Buying one unit of the Leica ScanStation P40-3D Laser Scanner to provide the safety and minimize the expenses in the mining industry is not a practical idea which is providing safety to some of the workers in one tunnel spot and neglect the others.Steel movement plate has been built and attached to a linear actuator that can move with a resolution around 0.00375 mm per step and stroke 50 mm in order to simulate the roof failures in mines. It is not possible to try the M16 in real mine due to the time limits and absence of not unstable mines locally, besides the intention that the author has to start with an office environment.The M16 Leddar Evaluation kit is aimed directly to movement plate and collecting the deformation derived by the actuator. The results collected has many of anomalies and irregular data that can be eliminated by doing some of the statistical identification of outliers.The results show that the M16 Leddar evaluation kit is capable of detecting the movement plate profile with a precision between 0.1 mm and 3 mm per integration period"--Abstract, page iii.