Comparative Analysis of Smart and Traditional Evacuation Strategies in Underground Mines Utilizing Virtual Reality Simulations

Underground mining operations inherently involve significant risks, such as the collapse of surrounding rock or fires. While infrequent, the potentially catastrophic nature of these events highlights the essential need for swift and secure evacuation procedures, ensuring the safety and survival of mineworkers in such situations. The traditional static evacuation strategy, relying on exit signs or guidance markers, may become blocked or barely discernible in low-visibility circumstances resulting from smoke or dust. This paper investigates the feasibility of integrating smart evacuation technology into underground mine operations by examining its effectiveness compared to traditional practices. This procedure involves real-time evacuation guidance of individuals along optimized paths to egress, effectively avoiding danger zones. A virtual simulation environment was built based on the actual layout of a gold mine in Nevada. In this instance, the simulation process involved evacuating a group of participants employing both traditional practices and smart evacuation strategies equipped with live assistance. The findings revealed a notable contrast in the effectiveness of the total evacuation duration between the traditional and smart evacuation strategies. The smart method achieved the most substantial decrease in total evacuation time, almost a 40% reduction. Additionally, 83% of participants expressed a preference for the smart evacuation strategies compared to the traditional practices, with all participants agreeing that the smart evacuation strategy has the potential to improve mine safety.