Architecture of a Cyber-Physical System for the Mining Enterprise Ventilation Control Based on the Internet of Things Platform

Abstract

The article considers the architecture of the ventilation control system for underground mining enterprises, equipped with a digital twin with online functions such as simulation modeling and predictive analytics. The system is focused on the main fan unit (MFU) control taking into account changing parameters of external air supplied to mine shafts. In contrast to the existing ones, the proposed method of control takes into account the influence of these parameters on changes in the total volume of natural draught, on which the total volume of air supplied to the mine (mine) depends. It is known that ventilation systems of such enterprises consume from 30 to 50 % of all electricity consumed for the mining process. In this regard, the proposed control models can be used to optimize energy costs and energy savings in ventilation. The Internet of things (IoT) InfluxData of stack TICK is offered for the realization. The offered architecture of cyber-physical system (CPS) consists of four subsystems: physical object subsystem, network and computing infrastructure IoT, digital twin, user interface. Architecture of CPS provides data processing from energy meters, control controllers and sensors of air environment parameters, implemented in blocks of on-line and off-line calculations. The digital twin of the ventilation system is made with the use of a time series database and a database of attributes that store information on changes in equipment parameters by time, air indicators, performance indicators, statistics on accidents and fan runtime, CPS characteristics, etc. CPS of the given architecture means connection of additional data sources, providing calculations of rational volumes of air delivery taking into account safety norms and requirements of energy efficiency.