UNDERSAFE Project

Underground tourist activities are gaining relevance in our society. Gradually, more and more tourist underground activities appears (for example, in tourist caves, more than 200 are located in Europe and growing, being UK, France, Italy, and Spain the countries with the bigger number of them). These tourist attractions are gaining gradually the interest of the public, but nowadays poor safety and environmental normative is available (national or European). With UnderSafe we propose the development of a system which provides a constant and non stopping level of security for underground non professional inhabitants in these potentially dangerous situations by means of a permanent verification of security levels inside the infrastructure visited by tourists.

The UnderSafe system will be based on wireless technologies. The objective is to develop a safety system which will detect potentially dangerous situations of different kind. It will be based on low cost and low consumption ZigBee technology, which offers robust conditions in front of electromagnetic disturbances. The basic system will include a number of nodes along the underground space, located in the upper limits of the walls (Static Nodes). The different nodes have to be situated sight to sight with at least two nodes, accomplishing the communication channel. Visitors will wear specifically designed nodes (mobile nodes), which will communicate with static nodes.

visit the UNDERSAFE website here

The project has a duration of two years and brings together technology and software companies from a number of european countries with experience in the promoting health and safety on a sub surface environment.

PROJECT PARTNERS:

1. Innowacja Polska Sp. z o.o. (INNOWA) from Poland - the Coordinator – (RTD Performer)
2. Electronics Design Ltd. (EDES) from Estonia – (SME)
3. Artica Soluciones Tecnologicas SL (ART) from Spain – (SME)
4. INTERKONSULT Ltd. (INTERK), from the United Kingdom – (SME)
5. EC Electronics Sp. z o.o. (ECEL), from Poland – (SME)
6. Kopalnia Soli Wieliczka S.A. (SALTM), from Poland – (OTHER)
7. EDMA INNOVA S.L. (EDMA), from Spain - (RTD Performer)
8. Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), from Spain - (RTD Performer)

Consortium members visiting the Wieliezka salt mine during the kick off meeting in October 2011