The rise of health and safety applications in the field
Paul Brodin, Technical Lead at K-Matic, KOREC Group, talks to Danielle Kenneally
HEALTH and safety at work is of paramount importance. There is so much to think about and so much to consider at the best of times, but for people who work on the roads, the railways, and also those within industries who work in remote locations such as forests and places like the Scottish Highlands, it is pretty dangerous too.
There’s slip and trip hazards, electricity cables, high speed trains, and the potential for becoming disoriented, as well as natural causes such as instances of illness.
With the help of K-Matic and its software developers, those that work within these industries are being helped to keep track of their employees and keep them safe. K-Matic’s technical lead, Paul Brodin, talks to the Civil Engineering Surveyor’s, Danielle Kenneally about what they’re doing and how they’re helping to put workers first.
Tell us about your role.
As technical lead for K-Matic, the software division of KOREC Group, our role is to help customers who have very specific workflow requirements through the use of a mobile device using KOREC Capture and a workflow portal known as K-Portal. We get involved in all sorts of applications, such as monitoring the build of a new robotic distribution centre or by providing just the final bits of a solution to bigger projects, such as badger monitoring in Northern Ireland.
In Northern Ireland, the software is needed to record the location of camouflaged badger traps which they’re setting up to test badgers for tuberculosis (TB). This is a bit left field but it is needed for the health and safety (H&S) of the badgers and it’s an example that shows the type of work that we get involved in. More often than not, it’s not to do with traditional geographic information system (GIS), it’s to do with people doing the job, who just happen to need to capture a bit of positional information, GIS is essentially secondary to the main job.
We do a lot of work with utility companies as well, where they’re installing the as-builts of where the cables, fibres and pipes are being installed underground, and we’re providing the tools to locate them so that when they need to be found again there’s no chance of a cable strike. These people are not there to do GIS, they’re there to install utilities or to find badger traps, and our software does that for them in addition to what they’re doing.
What developments have you made within the technological sphere of H&S?
Over the years, we’ve developed a number of different ways of adding H&S to our solution. Most of the people don’t buy our system because it’s a H&S solution, they buy it for data capture. The H&S aspects are an add-on that simply come with the package. Device tracking is the most basic thing that we do when it comes to H&S.
I definitely see that we’re moving to a place where the health and safety part of the process is more important than the actual data capture.This means that people who are out working with a mobile device, say checking on pipes, can be located because the mobile device sends information every couple of minutes. On top of that we’ve added an SOS button and also a feature that provides inactivity alerts.
With people out in the field, you’d expect them to be moving around and capturing information. With the inactivity alerts feature being added to the server, we can put a time limit of say 45 minutes of no movement on, in order to check that they’re okay. We’re still getting the positions, so we know the device is turned on, we know that the user is theoretically using the software but if this device hasn’t moved for 45 minutes, at that point we can start sending alerts out.
It’s an ideal option for people who are involved in peat management where they’re walking for miles and miles across Scottish Highlands. They no longer have to call in every hour to say that they’re okay, because the system is doing that for them. It’s also useful for National Highways whose employees can work on steep slopes. They use a system where they press a button three times to say they need assistance.
What makes these tech developments important?
We began with just three H&S features, which were basic tracking, adding an SOS button into the software and the inactivity alert system and, as we’ve developed, so have the requirements of the customers we work with, to think about what other features would be a benefit. We’ve tried to think of every situation. For those who work in areas of no signal such as a forestry environment where there is heavy canopy coverage and is essentially a dangerous environment, the three basic features weren’t enough.
A feature that allows the worker to send a message to say they would be out-ofservice for a certain length of time and setting an alarm that goes off at that time, is good to have. Colleagues can then be notified that they haven’t got back in touch at the time they said they would return, if the alarm hasn’t been turned off. We initially started off with the H&S features just being an added bonus to solutions, but it was important to us to include them because the safety of workers, employees and essentially those who are using the tech is paramount.
Does H&S play a bigger role now for companies as a feature of new tech or has it always been something they have always factored into their decision?
In the past, the driver has been data capture, and the H&S sides of it have just been add-ons. We have two specific solutions that we have created that are specific for their H&S applications – for Network Rail and National Highways. I definitely see that we’re moving to a place where the H&S part of the process is more important than the actual data capture.
What future developments are in the pipeline to ensure the safety of workers?
One system that we’re currently working on is being trialled for Network Rail on a replacement line in the North of England. It is specifically for H&S. This is because Network Rail needs to know exactly where its staff are at any given moment. It is therefore vital that workers are tracked from the very start of the process to ensure that they enter the track at the correct location, follow specific directions and walk the right amount of distance with absolutely no chance of instructions being misinterpreted. Train operators, who then limit the trains speed going that way, are working on the basis that they know exactly where each and every worker is.
We want to provide – as I’m sure other companies do – the processes to look after people who are working in dangerous environments.
What we’ve developed is a H&S solution that ensures everyone is accounted for at the right access point. So, a crew will meet at a specific location for a safety briefing and the team leader will tag everyone with their specific ID software to ensure when they enter the trackside, they can be given authorisation by those back at the office that they’re at the right location to proceed.
It also provides an audit trail that everyone has been given the right information. In addition, the mobile device uses GPS to track each individual and if the office has set up a yellow polygon as an area they’re meant to stay within and if they stray then it will send an alert – buzzing, screen flashing – to let them know because it’s for their safety that they stay within the safe area.
For National Highways, it’s a similar problem. It wants to let people know where they shouldn’t be working because of electricity cables and they’re now using a solution for this. These are not a replacement of what organisations are already doing but an add-on in terms of making their workflows safer.
Are there areas within H&S that you think needs major improvement?
We’re interested in moving the requirement from having to have a mobile phone to use these solutions to running them on a smartwatch.
I think that’s where we’ll be in a couple of years’ time, maybe even next year.
We’ve had some trials with smartwatches but they aren’t quite up to it yet.
We can now mount GPS onto helmets and we want to feed that information into a smartwatch. It’d be a better way of getting alerts as a H&S feature because the vibration on the watch is absolutely unmistakeable – you’ll definitely feel it on your arm.
There’s always improvements to be made and we’re constantly listening and learning.
We want to provide – as I’m sure other companies do – the processes to look after people who are working in dangerous environments.
Their safety is hugely important to both their organisations and to us.
Paul Brodin, Technical Lead at K-Matic, KOREC Group, talks to Danielle Kenneally