Six UK start-ups selected for world’s first Safetytech Sandbox
Six UK start-ups pioneering the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and other emerging technologies to improve industrial safety and risk management have been selected for the world’s first regulatory sandbox for industrial safetytech.
FYLD, HAL Robotics, Oculo, Eave, Plinx and Machine Eye will join seven major construction and infrastructure companies — including Balfour Beatty, BAM Nuttall, Costain, Heathrow Airport and Laing O’Rourke — in the Industrial Safetytech Regulatory Sandbox.
The sandbox is being delivered by Discovering Safety, a programme led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain’s health and safety regulator, and Safetytech Accelerator, a technology accelerator dedicated to advancing safetytech in industry.
It aims to accelerate the adoption of proven industrial safetytech products by considering how regulation affects the development and adoption of life-saving technologies and how assessment and compliance activities can be done more effectively. It will begin work in April 2023.
The selected start-ups have developed market-ready products to support health and safety in construction, and represent a range of emerging technologies requiring regulatory consideration:
- FYLD: FYLD improves safety and productivity for workforces operating in hazardous environments with real-time, AI-powered video risk assessments and predictive analytics. The award-winning technology can identify hazards and risk factors present on site through AI analysis, and surface productivity blockers that are causing teams to face delays on site.
- Plinx: Plinx has developed an intelligent safety system that improves site safety by controlling access to hazardous areas based on a worker’s role and purpose. Plinx’s connected SmartSensors attach to safety helmets, machinery, and cones form physical and digital zones. The system tailors zones based on site rules, notifying workers and machine operators immediately if they are working in an area where they are authorized.
- Oculo: Oculo improves risk management and safety by using AI computer vision to provide an accurate, up-to-date view of construction sites. Oculo reduces manual data collection, enabling risks and safety issues to be identified and addressed faster and more efficiently.
- Eave: Eave’s unique hearing protection system comprises its FocusLite smart ear defenders and Peak, a cloud-based risk monitoring and prevention platform. Eave customers equip their workforce with the FocusLite headsets, which gather data on construction site noise as well as the wearer’s exposure rate, and feed it through to Peak, where the data is analysed by health and safety professionals and work-site managers, who use it to manage or eliminate noise-related risks.
- HAL Robotics: HAL Robotics is a software company focusing on adaptive applications of robotics in manufacturing, construction, and creative industries. It specialises in the programming of complex toolpaths, such as those required in additive manufacturing, highly variable jobs for small batches and unique items, and applications which require adapting robot tasks from various software ecosystems.
- Machine Eye: Machine Eye’s intelligent safety platform helps businesses across construction and primary industries to manage and control the risk associated with Mobile Machinery, through both real-time interventions and longer term analysis: helping to protect workers while monitoring and improving HSE compliance across their sites.
Dr Helen Balmforth, Head of Data Analytics at Health and Safety Executive and lead on Discovering Safety, comments: “Innovation is key to advancing health and safety in all industries, including construction. We look forward to working with these six industrial safetytech startups to identify opportunities for progress and tackle any challenges that stand in the way of creating safer and more productive work environments.”
Dr Maurizio Pilu, Managing Director at Safetytech Accelerator, comments: “We’re very pleased with the quality of the startups selected. Their impressive range of innovative technologies are already making waves in the industry, and as they collaborate with peers, experts and construction giants within the sandbox, we can unlock fresh perspectives to advance health and safety technology across the board.”
