Blindsight technology makes mobile plant risk-smart – from Australia, across the world.
Very big machines are very dangerous. How and why has been anyone’s guess because of underreporting and a lack of context and understanding about inherent risks. This was until the machines became risk-smart themselves: watching, recognising and capturing all of the threats crews face when working near mobile plant.
Blindsight, an Australian technology, is giving mobile plant this intelligence.
Heavy machinery, especially mobile plant, has big blind spots. Its bulky nature, engineering, and the way it is used leave operators blind to large areas surrounding their machines. Crews working near the machines are often unable to see where operators are looking and what they are doing, and site managers and safety personnel are unable to observe every machine all the time.
Now the machines see for themselves. They actively watch for, recognise and capture every potential danger, warning operators, crews, and site and safety managers of worrying situations. They determine where, why, what, when and how risks to people happen.
“The biggest, lumpiest, even oldest mining equipment is now also the smartest,” Position Partners market development manager Nick Corr said. “This equipment is now super intelligent about never exposing people to the colossal dangers big machines pose.”
With more than 30 years of experience in deploying intelligent solutions, Position Partners solves challenges with proven technology, such as Blindsight, to enable safer, more efficient and more productive mine site operations.
According to Daniel Smith, who recently installed over 50 Blindsight systems, fitting Blindsight is “a doddle”.
“Usually, the most testing part is sitting through a mine site’s OH&S training so I’m permitted to go to a machine and fit the kit. (Blindsight) is designed to simply bolt onto the machine,” he said.
“Its eyes, its brains, and how it communicates are all part of the autonomous Blindsight technology.”
The “eyes” are specialist cameras trained on the surroundings of mobile plant. The “brains” is a computer processing unit designed and built to manage the substantial computer vision data and withstand the harsh conditions of mining in Australia. It also communicates risks directly from the machine in three distinct ways:
Blindsight instantly alerts the operator. It’s faster at seeing, recognising and alerting the operator about an impending risk than is possible for any human, but with the added advantage of never being distracted and only alerting when there’s a real risk to humans.
Crews at risk are warned at the same time with audio alerts, lights, or a combination of lights and audio. Crews instantly know they are getting themselves in harm’s way.
Safety and site managers are automatically notified of the risk occurrence, severity, location and timing, type of machine involved, and footage providing context for the risk. All of this information is easily accessible and available for toolbox talks, formal safety training, and for thorough analysis at a later stage.
“Knowledge is power. The more knowledgeable our miners have about where, why, what, when and how risks present, the stronger they move towards zero serious harm,” Kieran MacKenzie, founder of Presien, the Australian company that develops Blindsight, said.
“That’s why it’s imperative that the smarts on each machine are also available off the machine, accessible to site, operations and safety management – irrespective of where and how far from the machine they are located.”
Blindsight takes care of people’s safety on the ground, with ultra-high-reliability and super-fast expediency. This can only be achieved by Blindsight working autonomously and independently on each operating machine.
Whenever a risk is detected, Blindsight also ensures those who need to know about it are promptly informed with all available data, including footage of the risk. This contextual data is accessible remotely, whenever needed, via the internet over mobile data connections.
MacKenzie credits Australia’s heavy industry for Blindsight’s technical and market leadership. Awarded over 20 times for its technology and its specialisation, Blindsight is used by leaders in heavy industry across Australia and internationally, significantly reducing risks associated with heavy plant.
“The technology, the business, our industry relationships – everything we are comes from being part of the local heavy industry,” MacKenzie said. “We were incubated by Laing O’Rourke in Australia and, once our technology was proven, we set about independently to serve all heavy industry sectors, supported by Position Partners.”
Another key benefit of Blindsight particularly valued by miners is that it only – but instantly – engages when there is risk. It remains alert but not active in the absence of danger, only recording when it detects actual risks to people.
“Nobody likes being monitored, but everyone appreciates someone watching out for them,” MacKenzie said.
As one of Australia’s most progressive heavy industry innovations, Blindsight has also gained the attention of other industries, international markets and others keen to resolve various perpetual challenges facing the industry.
While the impact of Vision AI – a specialist artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can see, detect and recognise – on mining safety may be a new frontier for some, Presien’s Blindsight teams have been working at it for years.
Consisting of the world’s richest heavy industry Vision AI module, Blindsight applies everything its AI has learned and is learning to keep mining crews safe near machines. Unlike other AI, it works without connection to the internet, right from the machine, even in the most remote corners of Australia.
Always alert. Only alarming when people are at risk.
This feature also appears in the November-December issue of Safe to Work.