Author: Tamires Cavani Date: 23 January 2026

Introduction

The risk of spontaneous combustion in large piles of materials, such as mineral coal and grains (soya, corn), represents one of the biggest operational and safety challenges for industries such as mining and agribusiness. An incident not only results in significant financial losses due to the destruction of raw material and equipment damage, but can also cause downtime in production and, more critically, endanger the safety of employees. The answer to this need is not in reactive systems, but in a proactive and predictive approach.

This article details an integrated solution that combines the technology of thermal cameras with Hikvision's artificial intelligence (IA) with the industrial observability platform. The solution is designed to meet the specific needs of a customer seeking a monitoring system to identify hot spots, with a multichannel and preventive alert system.

The Solution Architecture

The solution operates in a continuous and automated flow, from data capture to notification and predictive analysis, ensuring a quick and informed response to potential threats.

1. Data Capture: Hikvision Thermal Cameras with AI

The first component of the solution is the HeatPro thermal cameras from Hikvision. These devices are the front line of the system, performing continuous monitoring of material cells. Its main function is to measure infrared radiation to create thermal images, allowing the visualization of temperature variations that are invisible to the naked eye.

The differential of these cameras is the Artificial intelligence embedded, which processes the images in real time to:

1. Precise Temperature Detection: Identify anomalous heating points accurately.
2. False Alarm Prevention: Algorithms Deep learning distinguish between relevant heat sources (a fire principle) and irrelevant sources (such as the engine heat of a vehicle), ensuring that alerts are triggered only for real threats.
3. Continuous Operation: They operate 24/7 under any lighting or weather conditions.

2. Centralization and Analysis: The Observatory Platform

The thermal data captured by Hikvision cameras is transmitted in real time to the Observability Platform, which acts as the brain of the operation. The platform is designed for industrial observability, and its interface clearly demonstrates the ability to manage this type of scenario.

Upon receiving the data, the Platform shall carry out the following actions:

1. Real-Time View: O Executive Dashboard presents a Heat Map of batteries, offering an overview and instantaneous of the thermal state of each sector. Key performance indicators (KPIs) such as "Active Alerts" and "Risk Level" are dynamically updated.
2. Analysis Deepened with AI: When an anomaly is detected, the section AI analysis It's triggered. The system not only reports temperature, but contextualizes it, comparing it with history (Historical Baseline), and identifies contributing factors such as material moisture and storage time. Based on this analysis, the AI generates clear and actionable recommendations, like "start cooling procedure with water spraying".
3. Predictive Analysis: The functionality IA & Forecasts it uses historical data to build predictive models. It identifies the cells with the highest probability of incident and predicts the evolution of temperature, allowing the operating teams to act before the first warning signal, based on trends.

The Decisive Factor: Preventive Alerts and Effective Communication

The customer's central requirement is a system of alerts that is not only reactive but preventive. The solution meets this demand in an exemplary way.

The alert is triggered on start of heat increaseNot when the fire started. This early detection capability is what transforms the system from a monitoring tool to a powerful accident prevention solution.

When the platform identifies a dangerous warming trend, it triggers automatic alerts through multiple channels as explored in the section Communication & Effectiveness platform:

1. E-mail: Formal notifications are sent to operations managers and other interested parties.
2. Pop-ups in Control Room: Immediate visual alerts are displayed to on-call operators.
3. WhatsApp: A message is sent to the emergency group, ensuring that the rapid response team is mobilized instantly wherever they are.

The platform Alert Management centralizes all events, allowing to track the response time (SLA), the person responsible for the action and the status of each alert (Active, Confirmed, Solved), ensuring full governance on the incidents.

Accident Prevention and Damage Mitigation

The implementation of this solution translates into direct and measurable benefits for a mining company or agribusiness company:

Benefit

Description

Human Security

The most critical benefit. Fire prevention eliminates the risk of serious or fatal accidents involving employees.

Material Loss Reduction

Early detection allows for cooling or redistribution of the material, avoiding the loss of thousands of tons of coal or grains.

Asset Protection

Prevents damage or the total destruction of expensive equipment such as conveyor belts, tractors and the yard's own infrastructure.

Operational Continuity

It prevents unscheduled stops in production, which can last days or weeks, generating millionaire losses.

Resource Optimization

The AI recommendations allow a more efficient allocation of resources, such as spray water or teams for redistribution of batteries.

The solution operates from the continuous capture of thermal data by Hikvision cameras with embedded artificial intelligence, which monitor coal cells and 24/7 grains, identifying anomalous temperature variations in real time. These data are automatically transmitted to the DriveData Platform, where they are centralized, historicized and analyzed by AI models that correlate temperature, thermal behavior over time, humidity and storage time. From this analysis, the system builds an operational baseline, detects critical deviations and applies predictive models capable of anticipating risks of spontaneous combustion, generating preventive alerts and actionable recommendations before the incident occurs.

Conclusion

The combination of Hikvision's smart thermal cameras with the industrial observability platform we create provides a robust, predictive and reliable solution for monitoring hot spots in material piles. It not only meets, but exceeds the customer's requirements by providing a preventative and multi-channel alert system that translates directly into accident prevention, safeguarding lives and protecting against significant financial losses.

By moving the paradigm of a reactive response to proactive and predictive risk management, this solution represents the future of safety and operational efficiency in the industry.

More than monitor, DriveData allows predict, act and avoid damage. We combine smart thermal vision, predictive AI and multichannel communication to transform invisible risks into quick and assertive decisions. The result is less losses, more security for people and total operational continuity. If your operation cannot stop — or take risks — prevention begins with data, intelligence, and action at the right time. That's the role of DriveData in your operation.