WEARABLE THE FUTURE

Worker safety is imperative for every company – could wearable technology be the solution to mitigate risks on-site? CATRIN JONES looks at the products on the market and their potential for enhancing productivity

XYZ REALITY'S THE ATOM

PHOTO: XYZ REALITY

Wearable technology has an increasing presence on construction sites across the globe as it demonstrates its potential to promote health, safety, connectivity, productivity, and accuracy.

According to a report by the US Chamber of Commerce, only 6% of contractors used wearables on construction sites in 2018. However, this number is expected to rise to 23% by 2022 – with wearable technologies such as sensors expected to grow the most.

The report also states that contractors view wearable technologies as one of the top ways to improve safety (83%), workforce management (56%), and productivity (36%). The US Chamber of Commerce says that about half of all contractors consider key project performance indicators like schedule, budgets, and safety to be some of the top benefits of investing in technologies, such as wearables.

HEALTH AND SAFETY BOOST

Wearables have become increasingly popular solutions to enhancing health and safety onsite, with a number of employee monitoring systems introduced to the market to meet these demands.

One of these is the Spot-R fall alert and emergency evacuation system from Triax Technologies, which monitors employees’ movements to alert safety personnel if the device changes elevation quickly, indicating a fall. The Scan-Link RFID tags monitor employees’ locations and alert equipment operators of employees behind the machine.

Some smartwatches detect vibration; that technology is used to monitor the ramifications to the body from using power equipment for a long time. Alerts tell the enduser when power tool use exceeds what the body can safely perform, helping to prevent hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).

There are also smart helmets that monitor several health elements, such as fatigue, heart rate and stress, so workers and management can modify workers’ activities in ways that promote employee health, and job site safety and productivity.

With all of the wearables available in construction comes an abundance of data. Whilst it’s helpful to know how an incident occurred it is also important to draw on the role wearables can have in preventing future incidents.

Jonathan Fava, president of Scan-Link Technologies, says that using historical data to learn how things happen can be the first step to promoting safety on the job site. “It’s not enough just to learn how accidents have happened,” says Fava. “The next step is to analyse data to prevent accidents from happening.”

With all of the employee detections picked up by the Scan-Link system, managers can identify ‘hot spots’ where machines detect people most frequently.

“Using this data, customers can identify areas where a struck-by incident is most likely to occur. Then, customers can make decisions that will decrease the risk of an accident from happening by moving the location of materials, so workers don’t have to walk in a machine’s workspace or by putting up signage warning employees of high-risk areas,” adds Fava.

REDUCING INJURY BY UP TO 60%

Wearable technology company Kinetic has announced the findings of a new report by Perr & Knight, a US-based actuarial consulting firm, which finds that the Kinetic Reflex wearable technology reduces injury frequency by 50-60% and reduces lost workdays by 72%.

The Perr & Knight report is said to provide an actuarial analysis of the Kinetic wearable device and its impact on workers’ compensation insurance losses.

The company says that the Kinetic Reflex is wearable technology that detects unsafe postures commonly occurring on the job, such as bending, overreaching, and twisting, that over time lead to injury.

“To get a clear view of the Kinetic wearable device and its impact on workers’ compensation insurance losses, we partnered with an actuarial consulting firm that had proven domain expertise in the property and casualty and accident and health industries,” said Kinetic CEO, Haytham Elhawary.

The Perr & Knight analysis used Kinetic data from clients of the wearable technology including counts of OSHA recordable incidents, sprains and strains, and days of missed work.

The data is said to have covered more than 15 million hours worked across various industries and over 2.1 million hours of Kinetic wearable hours.

KENZEN DEVICES BEING USED BY MCCARTHY CONSTRUCTION

PHOTO: MCCARTHY BUILDING COMPANIES

VARIABLE SOLUTIONS

Wearable technology has the potential to change how health and safety is managed on construction sites. Notoriously dirty, difficult, and at times, dangerous work, can be mitigated through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Jonas Svanholm, CEO and founder of Swanholm Technology, believes that AI wearables have the potential to offer companies solutions to suit their needs. The company has recently entered the wearable market with a connected safety vest.

The product has two main components – amotion-controlled AI and Bluetooth technology – that connects the vest to an app on a phone. By sensing the movement of the person, the AI enables the vest to light up when exiting a work vehicle cabin such as an excavator or a wheeled loader.

“People are very eager to have this connectivity,” says Svanholm. “They have something that can help them do the work. I think wearables have better usability because of that.

“We have tried to make the vest as flexible as possible so that it gives us the potential to add on different sensors in the future – the Bluetooth and AI enable us to do so.”

Kyle Hubregtse, CEO of safety monitoring company Kenzen, agrees with Svanholm that wearables can improve workers’ ability to do their job safely, but adds that there is potential for such technology to go beyond just safety.

Kenzen has launched a body heat system that uses physiological monitoring for the prevention of heat injury and death among workers. The real-time worker heat monitoring system uses a Cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) system that includes a wearable device worn by workers on their arms that alerts both the worker and their supervisor when core body temperature is too high.

“Trying to prevent injury and death on site is a number one focus but it’s also about improving the ability to do your work,” says Hubregtse.

“If you’re able to moderate and stop yourself before you overheat or overexert yourself then you’ll be able to do better work. This, in turn, encourages your mood to improve and how you work with others will also improve.”

Hubregtse says that there are many ways to improve productivity around work and rest schedules and mitigate the risks associated with working in hot spells on the construction site throughout the day.

SWANHOLM TECHNOLOGY’S SAFETY VEST

PHOTO: SWANHOLM TECHNOLOGY

“This helps improve workers’ overall health, so they’re able to moderate differently. They’re able to understand their body differently based on the data and the insights that we give them,” he adds.

MERGING REALITIES

Wearables are also instrumental in merging realities, which is bringing connectivity, productivity, and accuracy to job sites. Exoskeleton and assisted reality headset manufacturer Real Wear recently released the second version of their assisted reality headset, the RealWear Navigator 500.

The company says that it is lighter and more ergonomic than the previous model for all-day comfort, yet is durable for use on construction and industrial sites.

It features a modular design, a 48-megapixel camera sensor with enhanced zoom capability, low light performance, and is compatible with more than 200 optimised apps.

“With the Navigator 500, we wanted to provide scale enterprise solutions as part of the digital transformation movement. Today, we see the acceleration of digital transformation on the future of work, especially since the pandemic,” says Andrew Chrostowski, chairman and CEO, RealWear Technologies.

Mark Harris, CEO of protective clothing supplier HeroWear, agrees that the pandemic has accelerated construction’s adoption of new technology, as has the Great Resignation – when swathes of workers quit following the ending of the pandemic.

“There has been a greater push toward valuing people’s quality of life. Along those lines, the Great Resignation has spotlighted the importance of taking care of your employees and understanding the high cost (both fiscally and emotionally) that companies face with high turnover.

In response to the demand for worker health and safety, HeroWear’s Apex exosuits provide physical assistance to help reduce back strain – a serious issue for many construction workers.

“That support also helps fight against fatigue,” adds Harris. “Preventable accidents often occur because a person is fatigued. Exosuits like the HeroWear Apex are a practical solution because they comfortably provide physical assistance while maintaining the freedom of movement needed for tasks on a construction site.”

"THIS TOOL PROVIDES THE PROTECTION OF A HARDHAT WITH THE SUPERHUMAN POWERS OF AR”

FROM TABLETS TO WEARABLES

Augmented Reality (AR) is another key innovation that has evolved considerably. The technology has progressed from simple overlays on portable devices like tablets to engineering-grade wearable devices like safety goggles and XYZ Reality’s AR headset, the Atom.

“The Atom is a specially-designed piece of hardware combining a safety-certified headset, AR displays and in-built computing power,” says David Mitchell, CEO and founder of XYZ Reality.

“This tool provides the protection of a hardhat with the superhuman powers of AR, achieved through high-tech optical displays, showing the versatility of wearable technology.”

Mitchell says that, to get the most out of wearable technology in construction, we must focus on the challenges facing workers on the ground and think about how to design it to be as easy and safe to use as possible.

“Cutting-edge wearable construction technology like AR-enabled devices provide personnel with new-found agility on site, allowing them to build more safely, with greater accuracy and more collaboratively,” says Mitchell.

“Bringing Building Information Modelling to life in real-time in the field using digital technology like this also bridges communication gaps between teams on and off-site, opening up new ways to collaborate on projects and carry out remote inspections, in the case of AR.”

Ultimately, digital solutions are opening the door to a new era of construction in which architects, engineers and construction workers are connected and supported by the power of technology.

HEROWEAR APEX EXOSKELETON IN ACTION P

HOTO: HEROWEAR

“It’s an exciting time for the industry,” enthuses Mitchell. “Further investment into wearable technology will help drive this transition to a high-tech future.

“The potential is huge; it’s now about acting and harnessing the tools at our disposal as effectively as possible.”

Technology giant Trimble brings a different kind of connectivity and reality with the Trimble XR10 with Microsoft HoloLens. HoloLens users can see both the physical world and the virtual world; the digital image is overlaid onto the physical world.

The company says that workers no longer need to look at paper designs for what they are installing and then try to map out where that is in the physical world by establishing a frame of reference and taking out the measuring tape; they can simply see.

For those looking for a similar solution minus the cost, Trimble has also recently expanded the potential for BIM (Business Information Modelling) users to deploy augmented reality on the job site by introducing the Trimble Connect AR app, which is compatible with Trimble Connect.

The app is downloaded to a phone or tablet and allows users an augmented reality experience by pushing BIM data to their phone and overlaying it onto images of the real world on the device’s screen.

“This eliminates what can be a costly financial barrier to some customers,” comments Martin Holmgren, general manager of building field solutions at Trimble.

“Users can interact with Trimble Connect AR users in the digital space. For example, I can leave a message in the digital space with my Trimble XR10 and someone with the Trimble Connect AR app on their phone can detect the message, even weeks later as they walk by the location where it was left and read it. This greatly enhances communications and streamlines workflows.”

Ongoing research and development, as well as a more complete understanding of issues in construction and the greater availability of data provided by digital technologies and collaborative software, will help the industry to realise the potential of new wearable technology.

Digitally enabled wearables can seamlessly gather information during operations on even the most remote of sites. This information provides companies with valuable data for analysis to improve both the health and safety as well as the efficiency of construction, today, and in the future. CT

TRIMBLE XR10 WITH HOLOLENS 2

PHOTO: TRIMBLE