The Best Way to Collect Data from Geotechnical Instruments
Mine and civil engineers often make use of a variety of geotechnical instruments to monitor the status and movement within geological features and man-made structures, mostly as part of their safety management programs.
The data from these installed instruments is collected one of three ways:
- Manual Data Collection – A staff member moves through the site and connects a datalogger to each instrument in turn, reading data from the instruments one at a time (very slow and labour-intensive).
- Semi-Automatic Collection – A staff member moves through the site, stopping at intervals and using a wireless data collection system (often powered by a laptop or tablet with custom software installed) to read data from batches of instruments that are in range (faster than manual collection but still time-consuming).
- Fully Automatic Data Acquisition – All geotechnical instruments are connected to wireless nodes that in turn form part of a wireless mesh, point-to-point, or point-to-multipoint network (as relevant to the use case). This allows for data to be automatically collected at predetermined intervals and sent via the wireless network to a central point, where it is immediately available to engineers (in real-time, and there’s no need for anyone to visit the areas where instruments are located to collect data).
In most sizeable modern mines or substantial tunneling and other civils projects, automatic data acquisition makes more sense than manual or semi-automatic collection.
This can be easily achieved by linking up an array of different geotechnical instruments to a comprehensive monitoring system, via wireless nodes, like those manufactured by world-class technology providers Newtrax (ideal for use in underground mines) and Loadsensing (well-suited to surface/open-pit mining, tunneling, and other large civil engineering projects).
Contact us now to find out more about how to set up an automatic data acquisition system for your geotechnical instruments.