The system protects, manages and communicates with workers to increase safety.
The system has been designed for the mining industry, but it is clear that the same risks apply to forestry logging applications. The Connected Worker system combines smart wearable technology with the power of analytics to deliver an added layer of protection against a variety of safety risks at the site.
Scalable to accommodate both small and large operations, Connected Worker improves safety by alerting all connected workers of hazardous situations in real-time, delivering up to a 50% reduction in lost-time reportable incidents. The system’s ability to track worker location plus enhanced communications through audio, video and image transmission also help to increase site productivity. A range of safety, productivity and benchmarking reports, customizable to fit the site’s needs, boosts operational efficiency.
The worker safety system consists of three major components: the wearable hardware; software that captures and reports data; and the Internet of Things (IoT) platform that receives reports from the field and pushes out potential safety risks to workers. Creating a safer working environment, Connected Worker helps to detect and report hazardous areas at the site, unsafe exposure to environmental elements and communicates alerts to affected workers. The system communicates evacuation orders, fall detections, SOS signals and geofence violations.
Increasing system flexibility, three wearable options are available to communicate with workers. A smart alternative to personal protective equipment, the HC1 Hardhat delivers real-time positions through an embedded global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) chip. The hardhat features video and audio call, push-to-talk, and offline geofence and recording capabilities.
The TA1 wearable tag delivers tracking GNSS and Bluetooth tracking outdoors. It provides SOS, evacuation and social distancing alerts as well as notifies workers of geofence breaches. Workers can capture images and videos to report hazards, which are automatically shared with the safety control center (SCC), so teams can quickly develop geofences around the hazard to boost worker safety.
A companion hardware for hybrid deployment, the smartphone app for Android™ devices offers a solution for managing and monitoring team members in an outdoor environment. The app allows field managers to communicate with workers, issue SOS alerts and can be used to capture images and video of hazardous areas for reporting.
A broad range of customizable reports allows mines to review, analyze and predict hazardous situations to prevent future safety incidents. Among the system-generated reports are: overview reports of selected events; zonal reports of violations and emergency evacuations; location reports with heat signatures designating highly traveled areas at the mines; and sensor reading reports that include temperature, noise, humidity and pressure of the working environment. Source