Guardians of Century-Old Geological Heritage: Upgrade of Automated Monitoring Solutions for Ancient Salt Mines in Europe

Executive Summary

Faced with highly unstable geological conditions and imminent ecological risks, a century-old salt mine in Eastern Europe is in urgent need of a high-precision and reliable monitoring system. Recently, our team of monitoring engineers traveled to the site and, together with the local distributor, carried out the installation and commissioning of an automated monitoring system centered on robotic total stations for the customer. The entire system is now officially put into operation, and the customer is highly satisfied with its performance.

I. Project Challenges

1. Large Construction Scope and High Disaster Risk

This monitoring project is located in Eastern Europe and is an underground salt mine. With a mining history of hundreds of years, the mine has a maximum mining depth exceeding 200 meters and consists of 6 layers, each covering an area of over 32,000 square meters. Currently, the salt mine is submerged by water, and the surface geology is extremely unstable, with displacement reaching 10-20 centimeters per month in severe areas. The government is concerned that if the mine collapses, high-concentration saltwater will flow into rivers and damage the ecosystem.

 

2. Unsatisfactory Original Solution

The client's previous monitoring solution from another company was unsatisfactory in terms of precision, price, and convenience of data management.

1)The measurement stability of the previously used robotic total station was poor, with frequent data fluctuations exceeding 6 mm.

2)The client had to pay high annual service fees to the previous solution provider.

3)The server hosting the monitoring platform software was located in another country, making timely inspection and debugging impossible in case of failures.

 

II. The Solution We Provide

1.Based on the client's working scenarios and technical requirements, we designed a monitoring system combining a robotic total station, GNSS receiver, and other sensors. The equipment list is as follows:

· 1 unit of Robotic Total Station 1 second accuracy

· 4 units of Displacement Monitor MR1

· 1 unit of Communication Box MTU-01

· 1 unit of Protective Cover MPC-01

· 30 sets of Prism AK16N

· 1 unit of Temperature and Pressure Sensor

· 1 unit of Power Distribution Box

· 1 unit of Lightning Protection Device

· 1 set of SMOS Monitoring Software

2. System Installation and Commissioning (5 Steps, Completed in 7 Days)

1)Local construction teams poured 6-meter-high reinforced concrete columns (4 meters above ground + 2 meters underground, reinforced with 2 meters of soil backfill) and provided locally compliant power distribution boxes. (The construction time of reinforced concrete columns is not included in the 7-day system installation and commissioning period.)

2)With assistance from local electricians, centering plates, protective covers, power distribution boxes, and displacement monitors were installed; the MTU-01 communication module was fixed inside the power distribution box and wired; the total station was secured to the forced centering plate via centering screws.

3)Our monitoring engineers configured the SMOS software and added MTU devices (by entering SN codes)；

4)Commissioned the robotic total station and completed prism learning.

5)Set up monitoring programs tailored to the client's needs in the SMOS software, including:

a. Display displacement of monitoring points along the XYZ axes and generate graphs.

b. Collect 4 sets of data within 24 hours and present 6 data entries per day.

c. Display the displacement range and direction of monitoring points in the XY plane (based on the four main directions: north, east, south, west) for selected measurement data, and mark the rotation angle relative to north.

 

3. Project Outcomes

To date, the new monitoring system has operated continuously and stably for over a month, receiving high satisfaction from the client for the following reasons:

1)The new system eliminates the observation blind spots of the old system, achieving full coverage of the monitored area.

2)The collected monitoring data is more accurate, with a single observation data variation of ≤ 3 mm.

3)The cost of our monitoring solution is 30% lower than that of other solutions.

4)The monitoring software is deployed on local servers, not only meeting local safety supervision requirements but also enabling timely customization and adjustment of monitoring functions according to user needs.

 (Data from January 29 to 30, 2026)

Conclusion: Five Core Advantages of Our Robotic Total Station + GNSS Monitoring Solution

1.Leading Cost-Effectiveness:

    Under the same monitoring precision, the hardware procurement and operation and maintenance costs are significantly lower than those of other brands, suitable for projects with high requirements but limited budgets.

2.Excellent Data Stability:

The measured data variation in ordinary environments is ≤ 3 mm, with even better performance under favorable observation conditions and no data drift during long-term operation.

3.Outstanding Customization Capability:

 Can quickly respond to clients' special needs with targeted function development, such as custom data maps to display the variation of each point.

4.Flexible Deployment and Adaptability:

Supports commercial power/solar power supply and local deployment, adapting to complex network environments.

5.High Software Integration:

The SMOS platform integrates equipment management, data collection, analysis, and early warning in one, eliminating the need for additional adaptation of third-party software and featuring a low operational threshold.