Construction - Health & safety and augmented/assisted reality.

Stuarts challenges, at Soletanche Bachy could resonate with many in the construction industry concerned with safety in construction.  

What they wanted to achieve? (Highlights)

• To capture site visits remotely
• To secure quality assurance and control, without suppressing reporting 
• To inspect plant and machinery components
• Problem diagnosis on site, using remote experts 
• Improve operational and site transparency 
• Encourage an open honest dialogue with the sites over Health and Safety issues.
• Reduce risk by upskilling employees, engaging remote experts more often and spotting equipment issues early.

During Covid they wanted to achieve this, without site visits that involved extensive travel, however, post Covid the requirements shifted to the greener agenda, of cutting carbon footprint and getting higher productivity, whilst still achieving all the above and whilst complying with and improving health and safety standards.

Evaluation of Software, for Remote Access to sites that would work with Realwear, HMT-1 smart glasses.

Again just the highlights (you can read the full case study) when evaluating Software for Zoom, Teams and the SimplyVideo XRConnect that Simplyvideo came out on top for the following reasons:

• The tools were not flexible enough to match the six criteria successfully.
• They particularly struggled in low bandwidth site conditions.
• The quality of connection was not of a high enough quality.
• The Tools were not powerful enough to work with smart glasses.
• Some solutions raised security issues 

 Particular drawbacks were:

• Interoperability between different platforms that any customer might have were limited.
• Low bandwidth performance was poor 
• We wanted more than a remote expert access tool
• We wanted to not just capture head and shoulders in a meeting
• We need to inspect equipment with high quality "see what I see feedback"

Construction Site Safety

Over and above that Stuart wanted to herald a new chapter of transparency, that moved away from just data, that was heavily relied upon, but flawed, because it reflected only what was reported. If the importance of health was to be delivered transparency was paramount to reducing risk.

Stuart's view that "organisational silence was a killer" on sites, was one that brought in the "Simply Safety" initiative and the ease of access to sites, at any time, meant that the transparency the company wanted, could easily be achieved. 

The Global nature of Soletanche Bachy International meant that they had to deal with:

• A resistance to change that a lot of large organisations have a problem with.
• Telecoms infrastructures that were very different in quality and scope.
• On top of a pandemic.  

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 delivered the following mandatory responsibilities.  

• Providing and maintaining safe systems of work.
• Ensuring safe usage, handling,storage,and transport of work related articles and substances.  
• Providing information, instruction,training and supervision to ensure workplace health and safety.
• Providing a safe workplace, entrances and exits.
• Ensuring the Provision of adequate welfare provisions 

In addition, the law also identifies employees’ responsibilities for ensuring workplace health and safety, including:

• Taking reasonable care of their own health and safety and that of other people who may be affected by their work
• Cooperating with employers so far as necessary and complying with health and safety provisions in the workplace. 

How Assisted and Augmented Reality devices and software can help with Health and Safety and Safety in Construction.

With Assisted Reality smart glasses now able to deliver the following use cases with XRConnect collaboration software, we believe that the forward thinking Construction companies can:

• Increase Senior Engineer site inspection productivity by 10 fold.
• Cut travel Budgets.
• Increase building finance cashflow with faster more fluid sign offs. 
• Deliver Training to onsite employees more effectively using practical sessions rather than classroom based sessions.
• Deliver remote expert troubleshooting to site in minutes.
• Review 3D designs and internal M & E drawing superimposed on the building shell.  
  
• Access building drawings using simple voice commands

These Use Cases are covered here in the Construction Industry and Augmented and Assisted Reality Guide

So if your looking to Improve your construction companies performance whilst leading the working practices not just for Health and Safety Quality Assurance and Quality Control we can help.   

As well as the Health and Safety executive becoming the controlling body there is now an emphasis on Safety in Construction by adding:

• Safety Checkpoints
• Gateway 2 requires applicants to submit a building control application to the BSR Building Safety Regulator (Health and Safety Executive) before starting construction.
• Gateway 3 ensures that the work specified has been completed in line with building regulations - prior to occupation.
• Plus a Register of Building Controllers and Approvers that must comply with the code of conduct.
• The Golden thread of information requires your building information to be:
  • Kept Digitally.
  • Kept Securely. 
  • Be a buildings single source of the truth.
  • Be available to people who need the information to do a job.
  • Available when they need the information.
  • And presented in a way that people can use.

 This heralds in a massive opportunity to use Assisted and Augmented Reality hardware and Software to overlay the information on the real world.

• To use voice commands to summon designs and drawings.
• To instantly see these drawing on screen / overlaid on the site or building shell.
• To consult architects using voice commands to dial them into a collaboration call were smart glass wearers show them exactly what they are looking at.
• To be able to bring experts in to troubleshoot issues with plant, machinery or simple site issues.
• To consult Health and Safety guidelines on demand.
  
  In the video below we see Argyle Software being used on a Magic Leap 2 Augmented reality device that enables the visualisation of the M and E drawings inside a buildings shell.
• These Use Case are cover in our Guide to Augmented Reality and Assisted Reality for Construction which can be found here

We will add to the guide continually and should you wish any elements to be added use the form below.

The Future of Construction Health and Safety - Insights

Leaders in the construction industry are already seeing this legislation as an opportunity to:

• Differentiate their companies by offering site workers advanced tools to meet these legislative Health and Safety regulations. 
• However, they are also seeing it as a way to attract people to the industry that has a "vacancy issue" post Covid.
• In this next session we look at the future and the art of the possible both now and in the very near term (2024) and what impact that will have on the Construction Industry delivering higher standards of Health and Safety.

 The penalties for Non Compliance are a 2 years prison sentence and therefore the industry is now calling for a digital solution that now de-risks compliance with The Golden Thread that the Building Safety Act calls for, through streamlining.

The Intelligent Golden Thread (I-GBSM) for Building Safety Management is now a pressing need and we look at how that can be achieved. There are a number of components needed:-

• Individuals who are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed (RACI) need a golden thread that will identify project-specific compliances plans for individual roles. 
• A second Intelligent Golden Thread is required for Design Safety Analytics (IGT-DSA) this ensures compliance with gateway 1 , collecting and archiving all data related to fire safety standards during the design and planning stage. 
• A third Intelligent Golden Thread deals with Gateway 2 and 3 by ensuring contractors record and manage compliance plans , materials used and executed actions. Employing AI algorithms it verifies that the actual construction aligns with the approved design and the compliance information.
• A fourth IGT deals with Building users and managers giving them a friendly interface, ie natural language queries so they can inquire about information such as building details, safety compliance, and any identified non conformances.  

This kind of tool would deliver the Governments intended outcome, safer buildings in a way that the industry can comply with Health and Safety without the burden being prohibitively costly or high risk.

Ultimately, an Intelligent Golden Thread needs to be delivered digitally to different roles, in different positions:

• Those with access to desk devices 
• Those with access to tablets 
• And those in the field able to query any of The Golden Threads and have the answers fed to them on the appropriate head-up display, instantly.