Teleoperation of mining equipment using Optical Wireless Communications

Penguin Automated Systems Inc. is presently evaluating the world's first omnidirectional Optical Wireless Communications (OWC) network customized to teleoperate mobile equipment in surface, underground and underwater mining operations. Experimental results of novel technologies that made this possible are presented here: a mode programmable On-Off-Keying (OOK), Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulations (OFDM) Half-Duplex LED driver, and a single photodetector Free Space Optical (FSO) receiver. Experimentation demonstrated viability of this OWC system in its intended environments.