Excellent improvements

For Swiss Federal Railways, the ‘Owl’ product from Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group's ‘Smart Rail Safety’ innovation project is ‘The best performance in improving safety’. The reward: The Prix Sécurité 2020.

The aim of the innovation is to know exactly where all people and machinery are located on the construction site at all times. Since this knowledge creates an overview, errors are avoided and accidents are prevented. ‘Owl’ is a digital real-time representation of the construction site from a bird's eye view, which, thanks to eased communication and automatic logging, significantly simplifies and relieves workplace coordination. Using a smartphone app and GNSS tracker, the positions of construction crews and machinery are recorded and displayed as an overview. The webbased software application also facilitates direct and simultaneous communication with several people. Every user has access to the current construction site overview and messages can be answered on smartphones and smartwatches. All steps taken are automatically recorded in the running log. Potential danger zones can be set up virtually so that the system issues automatic messages. For example, the pivot range of the excavator: if an unauthorised person approaches, the person and the excavator driver receive a warning. This also applies to loading zones, crossings, assembly points and logistics routes as well as collision warnings between machines.

To increase safety awareness, identified hazardous situations and near misses can also be used for training. ‘Owl’ requires no installation effort and can be used at every outdoor construction site. The system enables workplace coordinators to focus on their core jobs and serves as a supportive, innovative tool that is used to facilitate coordination and operational activities on and around the track. The greatest added value on construction sites is the real-time overview and zone information as well as its automatic logging.

Elias Meusburger, Project Manager Technical Innovation/Agile Product Development at RSRG: “With our clear focus on the customer and our agile approach, we have successfully come up with an innovative product that also appeals strongly to other SBB service providers. The award shows that we are on a successful path with our innovations within RSRG and that it pays to invest in new things.”