# Applications of the Open-Source Hardware Arduino Platform in the Mining Industry: A Review
## 5 Discussion  
In this paper, research cases employing Arduino in mining were collected, and the statistical trends were analyzed. Arduino has the advantage of being a microcontroller that can be applied to various environments and tools. However, in the mining field, its use has been biased towards field monitoring systems (25 papers) more than wearable systems (11 papers) and autonomous systems (12 papers). In addition, it was found that in all systems, Arduino was mainly applied in underground mines (total 36 papers) rather than open-pit mines (total of seven papers, Table 7). In particular, in the case of wearable systems, all studies (11 papers) were conducted for applications in underground mines. In the field monitoring systems, some studies were conducted to acquire geological information of open-pit mines (five papers) or air quality information of polluted areas (two papers), but there were more cases addressing underground mines (18 papers). In the autonomous system field, there were studies on automating work in open-pit mines (two papers) as well as underground mine studies (seven papers), but the absolute number was not large. The reason why the number of studies related to underground mines is higher than that for open-pit mines is attributed to the communication technologies and cost-saving advantages of Arduino. In underground mines, there have been difficulties in the use of equipment and safety problems relating to open-pit mines, owing to communication difficulties. Figure 13: Electronics used to monitor the position/orientation of the device and collect cavity range measurements (**left**), and initial prototype auto-rotating cavity surveyor (**right**) [77]. (License Number 4851090213631). However, Arduino is able to acquire information and perform communication at a low cost; thus, it can be understood why research using the Arduino in underground mines has increased. In contrast, as existing equipment can be used in open-pit mines, there are fewer research cases using the Arduino. The usage of Arduino according to specific purposes is summarized in Table 8. The sum of the statistically analyzed items and the literature reviewed in this study do not necessarily match; as in some papers, two or more items are related. For example, as air quality, temperature, and humidity are very important factors that directly affect safety in mines (especially underground mines), there are cases of atmospheric monitoring in all three types of systems. Field monitoring systems have been used to monitor geotechnical mining information such as information regarding the slope (four papers), vibration (one paper), borehole (one paper), and mine roof (one paper), as well as atmospheric data. However, there have not been many cases. In addition, in wearable systems, most of the research is related to atmospheric monitoring (10 papers). Other important observations are whether a helmet is worn (two papers), whether a collision has occurred (three papers), and the heart rate (six papers) or location (two papers) of a mine worker. In autonomous systems, atmospheric monitoring through a robot is an important research topic (six papers). In addition, Arduino has been used to control the operation of machines (seven papers), or to monitor a mine environment in combination with a UAV (three papers). Table 9 summarizes the Arduino types employed in the reviewed articles, according to the system type. There are many types of Arduino devices, but the Arduino UNO, Nano, and Mega were used in most studies. Although the Arduino UNO has been used in the most studies (22 papers), the use of Arduino Nano has also been reported in wearable systems, where a relatively small size may be advantageous. In addition, there have been some papers utilizing an Arduino Mega in autonomous systems that require connection to a variety of sensors and actuators. In many studies, various sensors are used to perform monitoring, regardless of the system type.