Description
Mine Emergency OperationsSpecifications Rapid Deploy Seismic Location System (RDSLS) The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) an agency of the United States Department of Labor possesses a Seismic Location System for search and rescue of trapped miners that has been used for about 35 years. The system is truck mounted and is stationed at MSHA’s Mine Emergency Operations (MEO) facilities located in Bruceton, Pennsylvania. The fact that it is integrated to its truck mountings somewhat limits it rapid deployment to either the mine site or location chosen for set-up, especially if the location is not accessible by road. While functional, the current system is based upon very dated technology and spare parts for some of the equipment have been discontinued by their manufacturers. New signal processing electronics that now exist and the greatly increased speed of today’s computers allow MSHA to develop an updated system with vastly greater capabilities. Further, the development of new signal processing algorithms has expanded as the technology to support them has made their application practical. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) capabilities would also be designed to link between the geophone subsystems and the present base station. MSHA Is seeking an easily transportable Rapid Deploy Seismic Location System for use in mine emergencies that can be quickly set up to provide emergency service. This system will be used to detect and located the source of signals transmitted by trapped miners. At this time, MSHA is not interested in a developmental effort and is seeking information on and sources for a complete system that meets the following specifications: The Rapid Deploy Seismic Location System (RDSLS) shall consist of the following components and features: I. Seismic Equipment to listen for and interpret the distinct tapping sounds generated by miners tapping on the installed bolts in the roof of the mine entries. The system shall be designed to be very portable and easily and rapidly transported and deployed quickly in emergency situations. A. The first hours of entrapment are very critical and having equipment on site and deployed quickly is imperative to locating miners in order to facilitate rescue methods. B. The RDSLS shall include an array of listening devices to cover a large distance over sometimes extensive mine works where miners may be trapped in unknown different areas of the mine. MSHA currently uses 7 subarrays, each with 7 geophones. C. The RDSLS shall include an array of transmitter devices to send the collected signals by a wireless means to a small base station computer located in a mobile vehicle. The transmitter shall be designed similar to or as an improvement to the present MSHA telemetry transmitters, which use tripod mounted antennae. The RDSLS shall be designed to work and be deployed over all types of terrain and in all types of weather conditions. The system shall be capable of receiving signals from the transmitters. If signal repeaters are designed for the system the repeaters shall be proven to operate under all scenarios. D. The RDSLS shall convert to digital format as early as possible in the gathering and transmission process. E. The RDSLS shall include a portable central receiver to collect the signals from the array of transmitters. The signals shall be stored in a database for processing and micro seismic search. The database shall be made available to other processors or laptop computers. This information could be made available by use of a local area network. The laptops shall be equipped with analysis software that allows them to cancel certain seismic noise and vibration interference and detect the tapping of the miners. The software shall enhance the seismic signals by removing distortion and reverberation. The system shall be designed for the transmission of seismic signal data using the internet. The non-receipt of signals from some of the transmitters shall not cause a delay in the analysis of data received from the transmitters that are functioning. F. A system control screen shall be a part of the RDSLS. The screen shall have displays that show full system status including array status, location information, time, storage information, electrical information and control status. G. The RDSLS shall have the capability to identify, isolate and ignore or cancel random noise interference and simultaneously operate in locating miners tapping. H. The manufacturer shall develop and incorporate algorithms that search in real time and determine when the miners are tapping and also search in space to determine the location of the signals. I. The RDSLS shall include a locater that identifies the coordinates of the tapping sounds and is capable of interfacing with the underground mine coordinate and mapping systems and providing mine locations of the trapped miners. The system shall be capable of identifying the location to within 1-2 meters. J. Current base station hardware used by MSHA shall be reviewed and any or all hardware shall be used wherever possible to define new signal processing components such as noise cancellation that the new system lacks. K. Listening devices or geophones, preamplifiers, and the Base station shall be designed to consume a minimum of power to reduce the size of batteries. Properly sized and designed batteries shall be provided. Backup batteries and charging racks shall also be provided. All batteries shall be case mounted. L. The battery power shall be designed to operate during one search mission without battery replacement. The search mission may last a minimum of 7 days. M. A properly sized generator shall be provided for situations where commercial power is not available including capability to recharge system batteries while system is in operation. N. The RDSLS shall incorporate GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) receivers in the geophone subarrays for location detection to within a meter. The RDSLS shall be designed to work and be deployed over all types of terrain and in all types of weather conditions. The system shall be capable of receiving signals from the transmitters. In the event the transmitters cannot receive GPS signals, the manual survey of locations may be necessary. The RDSLS must be capable of easily incorporating manual survey data into the computer operating systems without delaying the location analysis procedures. O. The signals will be relatively weak. The miners are trained to pound on the roof ten times with approximately 1 second between each strike. This process is repeated every 15 minutes. This is the sound that must be detected with the consideration and filtering of other machine, wind, equipment and other noises. P. The miners may be located as far as 2000 feet below the surface. Q. The system shall be fully automated i.e. all procedures for listening for the tapping signals, isolating with filtering, transmitting, receiving, analyzing and a resultant display of locations must eliminate the current system method of manual examination of waveforms for detecting signals. R. The RDSLS shall utilize a Windows XP operating system. . II. The RDSLS shall be designed for future component change or system upgrade without disrupting the total system integrity or operating characteristics. A. The system being purchased is to replace an existing system that is dated and not easily updated. The new system shall be designed to easily accept future updates to software or improved additions to hardware without disruption or the need to replace total system hardware. B. The RDSLS shall be designed with redundancy i.e. the system is used in remote areas and backup systems must be integral to the RDSLS. Critical spare parts must be provided with the system and a list of other recommended spare parts shall be provided. III. The equipment shall include a mobile all wheel drive vehicle that is capable of transporting the equipment from the Mine Emergency Operations Center in a rapid deployment mode. A. The mobile vehicle shall be designed to transport equipment but the RDSLS equipment may be required to be transported by air to a location not quickly accessed by driving. The RDSLS shall be capable of being packed in suitcases or small shipping containers in either land or air deployment. The weights shall not exceed 30 pounds per case to allow for one person to carry each case. B. The mobile equipment rear compartment shall be designed for bench seating and for lock down of the encased portable equipment for transportation. C. The RDSLS equipment shall be encased in weather proof boxes to withstand all types of extreme elements. The equipment should be cushioned to support any vibration and movement experienced during rugged terrain transportation and use. D. The Base Station shall be designed to work in either the mobile vehicle or in a building or tent if deployed by air. E. Racks shall be designed and provided for all equipment for temporary storage and transportation. F. The vehicle shall be a ¾ ton chassis design, 4 wheel drive with a rear compartment that is air conditioned/heated. G. The vehicle shall have an antennae attached that can be manually extended or telescoped to attain higher limits for improved reception of transmitted signals from the arrays. H. The vehicle shall be low profile to allow shipping by air as per US Air Force specifications. IV. The RDSLS will require calibration to analyze the signals for the varying types of regional geology or strata types prior to beginning the effort to listen for miners signals. This calibration will determine the relative speed of sound through the given rock formation. A. Calibration may be required using refractive or reflective geophysical methods. The RDSLS shall be designed to complete the calibration quickly utilizing the RDSLS geophone arrays and base station equipment. B. The RDLS shall be designed to select specific regional geology background as an alternative to performing the calibration procedure. This alternative will allow for quicker start up in the search for miners. V.. Other desirable system characteristics. A. Interactive method to manipulate data to identify signals of interest for viewing, filtering and selecting B. Automate and highly interactive processing (first arrival picking, filtering, locating) with display of location results, including uncertainty, on the mine map. C. Streaming of raw data and triggered events of interest to off site expert analysis via satellite. D. Simultaneous display of long time continuous records (unfiltered and filtered) from all array stations. E. System shall work in both a triggered (following 3 surface fired shots or upon detection of strong signals) and in a continuous mode. F. Signals need to have a high signal to noise ratio. G. System capabilities should include the coordinate systems be imputed well ahead of time before the situation is in a search mode. The system shall be capable of converting each mine’s local coordinate system to state plane and to GPS and vice versa. H. The arrival times at subarrays shall be ascertained and the system shall determine location by calculating signals and arrival times. I. The system shall be capable of filtering noise at or near a mine site that is not feasible to be shut off. Examples of this include high voltage power lines from nearby power plants, surface or buried pipelines that may be carrying water, gas products or other gasses or liquids, or nearby traffic on highly traveled public roads. Interested firms that possess a system that will fulfill the above requirements, should respond no later than 3:00 pm EDT Friday, April 6, 2007 with a detailed description of the system explaining how their system provides the above functionality. Solutions must be demonstrable systems, not developmental or proposed solutions. Responders are also requested to provide a pricing estimate, or a list price if one exists, for the identified solutions. This pricing data is for informational purposes only, in order to help the Government develop an estimate of the price of such a system.