2023 Best Use of Technology: Health, Safety & Wellbeing

eRAIN: Early rainfall detection with AI

Drainage Services Department of Hong Kong SAR Government

Drainage Services Department (DSD) is revitalizing the King Yip Street city nullah into the Tsui Ping River in Hong Kong, a major drainage channel covering a large catchment area. The project's susceptibility to adverse weather and limitations of conventional alert systems led the team to develop eRAIN, an AI-based technology that predicts water level variations based on rainfall forecasts. eRAIN provides frontline staff with approximately 120 minutes of advance warning to evacuate safely from the channel and maximizes the working time-window. The DSD used real-time quantitative precipitation forecast data and a custom-designed deep neural network to develop the system. eRAIN has received international recognition, including a bronze medal at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva Award 2023. The technology has a high potential to extend to other areas of application, such as urban riverine public spaces, to improve risk management and provide better security to people and property.

3D Avoidance

Flannery Plant Hire, Leica Geosystems and Xwatch Safety Solutions

The 3D Avoidance System has been developed between Leica and XWatch and has been launched exclusively with Flannery Plant Hire on their excavator fleet. It various workflows, allowing operators to manually log points and set their own avoidance zones. The solution has recently been used on Kier sites, with reports of great success. This system is a game changer, providing a new level of safety and efficiency on site. The real-time map includes powerlines, gantries, underground services and the potential hazards involved in working in close proximity to pedestrian walkways, live carriageways and public roads. This innovation is easy to operate and is set to be an essential tool on sites. For those looking to improve operations and provide a faster, safer and more cost effective solution for their clients, we believe that this system deserves recognition for its ground-breaking technology and contribution to the advancement of the construction industry.

AI augmented safety via industrial safetytech sandbox

FYLD and Colas

FYLD, a UK startup focusing on industrial safety and risk management, joined the world's first regulatory sandbox for industrial safetytech. The sandbox aims to accelerate the adoption of safety technology. Colas Ltd, a major construction and infrastructure company, supported FYLD in this initiative. The collaboration allowed both companies to quickly develop a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) utilising AI technology to improve safety, work efficiency, and quality. The PoC demonstrated that video-based AI risk assessments were superior to traditional methods, providing better visibility and faster completion. FYLD served as a collaborative safety tool, promoting engagement and behavioural changes. The technology also enabled remote visibility and hazard detection, ensuring jobs were done correctly the first time. Colas provided feedback for further development, and overall, users were supportive of the new approach. This collaboration sets an example for the wider adoption of technology solutions to enhance the health and safety of construction workforces.

WELLIE Tool

Mott MacDonald

Our projects should not just enhance people’s lives now, but long into the future. Mott MacDonald’s Wellbeing Impact Evaluation (WELLIE) tool examines the impact of infrastructure and the built environment upon community and individual wellbeing. WELLIE is seamlessly integrated into business case development and provides a worksheet to embed the principles of sustainability throughout the inception and appraisal process. It is the first framework to be developed which integrates the legal requirements of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 into a clear methodology within the WelTAG process. The tool has recently helped a Welsh town to actively design for wellbeing in its masterplan. An accessible, rigorous, and evidence-based approach, WELLIE puts wellbeing at the very beginning, rather than being a tick box exercise at the end of projects.

AIVR Walkout Inspection Trolley

One Big Circle

The Southern Rail Systems Alliance (SRSA) is a collaboration between Network Rail, Colas Rail and Aecom that is delivering a £1.5billion 10-year programme of track, signalling, electrification and civils renewals and enhancements across the Southern part of the UK. The SRSA are working with One Big Circle, adopting our AIVR (Automated Intelligent Video Review) system to review the track environment using video captured from trains across the UK rail network. AIVR provides engineers access to valuable video data to assess the lineside environment remotely online, to deliver surveys and make decisions without having to compromise track worker safety. The SRSA have worked with OBC to develop an innovative AIVR camera-kitted trolley to capture imagery from a walkout; this data collected allows engineers to safely review the track repeatedly and in closer detail online, massively reducing the necessity for repeated site visits across their programme delivery and keeping Boots off Ballast.

OWL

Onwave and Network Rail

OWL Geofencing technology is deployed by Network Rail Following a fatality at Surbiton, Network Rail was tasked with exploring tech solutions to improve safe systems of work (SSOW) for trackworkers. Loss of situational awareness was referenced in a report as being a significant factor that needed to be considered when evaluating appropriate solutions. Network rail in partnership with OWL have developed a Geofencing solution for supporting staff with wearable technology to improve the planning and execution of onsite safety. The devices alert the wearer when they step into a geofenced zone –they are accurate to 10mm. The devices provide a tech enabled tap on the shoulder to warn trackworkers they are stepping onto or near to a live track. 

HomeSafe – AI safety monitoring for business travellers and lone workers

Techfinity

HomeSafe represents an evolutionary leap in digital lone-worker technology as the world's first and only AI solution to replace the constant need for human monitoring of staff safety. The HomeSafe AI efficiently and automatically scales to provide safety monitoring for an unlimited number of lone workers and business travellers. HomeSafe AI evaluates a range of conditions and can automatically notify line managers and colleagues enabling management-by-exception. Additionally, the AI monitoring, supported by several privacy features, means potentially sensitive staff data no longer needs to be made available externally. Organisations should not be forced to trade-off personal safety vs. budgets. By removing the need for a manual Alarm Receiving Center to watch for alarms, HomeSafe significantly reduces the cost of providing lone worker safeguarding. With HomeSafe, digital lone-worker safety management is now viable for rollout across entire organisations and accessible to a much wider range of workers than was previously possible.

Smart environmental site monitoring and digital community engagement

UBY

UBY is a new monitoring technology provider with a mission to make construction leaner, safer and more efficient. Furthermore, it is to improve and protect the wellbeing of residents that surround urban developments. We achieve this by being different. That is, we use AI enhanced sensors and patented algorithms and software to provide useful and actionable information in an easily understandable format. Feedback from Leonard Davoux, Bouygues UK (Hallsville Quarter Phase 3). "We were the first construction project in the UK to install UBY's smart noise sensors and within weeks we'd reduced the time spent on responding to resident complaints and sensor alerts. The technology totally changed and improved how we were able to respond and meant that we weren't wasting time trying to investigate and resolve each occurrence. This allows us to then get on with the main tasks in hand, which is critical on any major project."

Digital Service Protection System at Heathrow Airport

Vision Survey for UK Power Network

Problem: The UK has nearly 4 million kilometres of underground services and every year nearly 60,000 accidental strikes occur, which cost the UK economy up to £2.4 billion per year.

Solution: Vislock is one of the first digital Service Protection systems to bring the old paper-based systems into the 21st century to reduce service strikes. It is all-encompassing from inputting service information, such as from the National Underground Asset Register, along with utility surveys to verify recorded positions, through a controlled permit workflow, including outputs to Machine Control Systems to physically prevent digging over a service. The system controls who can authorise permits at what stage, giving peace of mind that the right people are involved, whilst allowing everyone real-time status updates. We use Geographical Information Systems and augmented reality to help operatives easily locate the services. Benefits include improved safety along with savings of time, money, and carbon.