Integrated Intelligent Lighting and Personnel Positioning at Shangwan Coal Preparation Plant
Project Overview: Implementing location-based management for employees within the plant premises.
Implementation Plan: Integration of smart lighting and UWB-based personnel positioning, with on-site wireless coverage and intelligent luminaire retrofitting. Personnel will wear badge‑type locators, achieving positioning accuracy of 10–30 centimeters.
Functional Applications: Lights turn on when people arrive and off when they leave, enabling intelligent lighting control; real-time personnel positioning and trajectory playback; area occupancy counting; intrusion alerts in hazardous zones; emergency assistance; and comprehensive safety management.
I. Project Background
As a super-large, modern mine‑type coal preparation plant, the Shangwan Coal Preparation Plant is located in Ulanmuren Town, Yijinhuoluo Banner, Inner Mongolia, and primarily undertakes the washing and processing of raw coal from the Shangwan Coal Mine of the Shendong Coal Group. Against the backdrop of an increasingly challenging safety‑production environment in the coal mining sector, the plant faces numerous challenges.
(1) Upgrade Requirements for the Positioning System
As China’s requirements for coal mine safety production continue to rise, the upgrading and renovation of the coal mine system’s “Six Major Systems” has become urgently necessary, and the personnel positioning system likewise needs to be upgraded from area-based positioning to high-precision positioning. Traditional personnel positioning methods can no longer meet the modern coal preparation plant’s demand for precise personnel management, nor can they effectively ensure workers’ safety in complex operational environments.
(II) Pressure to Conserve Energy and Reduce Emissions
The coal industry has long been a major energy consumer, and energy conservation and emissions reduction have become central priorities across the sector. At the Shangwan Coal Preparation Plant, the total number of high‑power indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures reaches 3,000, all operating continuously at high energy consumption levels, leaving substantial room for improvement in energy efficiency and emission reductions. However, achieving these goals while ensuring adequate lighting for production operations remains a significant challenge for the plant.
(3) Personnel Safety Management Risks
Coal preparation operations involve numerous process steps and a complex working environment, posing significant safety risks. With personnel widely dispersed and highly mobile, conventional safety management approaches struggle to track workforce movements in real time, making it difficult to promptly identify and address potential safety hazards. Consequently, challenges in managing personnel safety are particularly acute.
II. Project Objectives
To address the aforementioned challenges, Shangwan Coal Preparation Plant has implemented our company’s integrated intelligent lighting and personnel‑location system. The system aims to achieve high‑precision personnel positioning and smart lighting management, thereby ensuring worker safety, mitigating production‑related safety risks, reducing energy consumption, and advancing the intelligent transformation of mine‑site safety management.
III. Project Implementation Plan
(1) Technological Convergence and Innovation
By integrating intelligent lighting with UWB personnel positioning technology, the UWB positioning Base Station and lighting fixtures are seamlessly combined. This innovative design not only reduces the number of devices deployed and space occupied but also lowers system construction and maintenance costs.
(II) On-site Wireless Coverage and Luminaire Retrofitting
Wireless Coverage: By retrofitting luminaires with smart technology, Wi‑Fi coverage is extended throughout the venue, ensuring reliable and rapid transmission of personnel‑location data and lighting‑control commands.
Lighting Retrofit: The plant’s 3,000 high‑power luminaires have been upgraded with smart lighting control capabilities. Following the retrofit, the fixtures can automatically adjust their brightness and switch on or off based on occupancy, thereby achieving energy savings and emission reductions.
(3) Equipment Provisioning for Positioning
Employees within the plant are equipped with badge‑style locators, offering positioning accuracy of 10 to 30 centimeters. These compact, durable badges are comfortable to wear and do not interfere with daily work. Once worn, the system can capture real-time location data, enabling precise tracking.
IV. Functional Applications and Outcomes
(1) Intelligent Lighting Management
Lights turn on when people arrive and off when they leave: Leveraging UWB positioning technology, the system can track personnel locations in real time. When someone enters a designated area, the lights in that area switch on automatically; once the person departs, the lights turn off automatically. This intelligent control approach effectively eliminates the problem of lights left on unnecessarily, significantly reducing energy consumption. According to statistics, after implementing smart lighting management, the coal preparation plant’s lighting energy consumption has decreased by [X]%.
Smart lighting control: In addition to the “lights on when people are present, lights off when people leave” functionality, the system can also intelligently dim luminaires and implement timed on/off scheduling based on occupancy patterns across different time periods and areas. For example, in areas with low nighttime foot traffic, luminaire brightness can be reduced; during specific time windows, certain zones can be automatically switched off, further enhancing energy efficiency.
(II) Personnel Positioning Management
Real-time Personnel Tracking: System administrators can use the web‑based or mobile management platform to view the real-time location of every employee within the facility. On the platform’s map, each employee’s position is clearly marked with an icon, enabling managers to monitor staff movements at any time and track their location and activity status. During production, managers can leverage this real-time location data to optimize workforce allocation and boost operational efficiency. For example, during equipment maintenance, they can quickly identify nearby employees who are both available and qualified to perform repairs, dispatching them promptly to minimize downtime.
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