Launching 3d Avoidance on the Flannery Fleet

31 May 2023

On the 18^th of May, Flannery were proud to host our first Product Launch Day at the Operator Skills Hub site in Sutton Coldfield in celebration of the Leica Geosystems and XWatch Safety Solutions 3D Avoidance System being available exclusively on our excavators.

The day was a huge success, featuring a first-look at what the new system can do with live demonstrations. We also showcased the Spillard Safety Systems Human Detection System, also available on our fleet, and the Brextor piling attachment.

About 3D Avoidance

There have historically been a number of hazards that the industry has faced when using plant on site, and these obstructions aren’t always visible. In the UK alone, there are over 4 million kilometres of underground pipes and cables. Due to the data of where these are being hard to access, there are currently nearly 60,000 accidental strikes of these occur each year. These incidents can cause a risk to the safety of on-site personnel and machine operators, as well as causing delays that then impact project time and budget. In fact, incidents such as this are costing the UK economy around £2.4billion annually.

Working together to make a total solution on site, Leica Geosystems, XWatch Safety Solutions and Flannery Plant Hire are providing a way to remove these risks and also reduce People Plant Interface (PPI), which is widely recognised as one of the key fatal risks within construction. This is the first time that companies have come together to find an actual working solution for a modern-day construction site, creating a reactive solution for a dynamic problem.

Safety has no limitations, and this solution can be used across a number of scenarios. With engineers attending site before plant works begin to map out hazards that can then be pre-uploaded into the in-cab system, the onus can then be taken off the operators for them to be able to avoid hazards effortlessly – reversing the normal trend with innovations where the functions rely heavily on the operator. Here are some examples of hazards that can be avoided:

• Height Restrictions
  
  
  • In situations where the excavator is in danger of hitting an overhead obstruction, such as power lines or a gantry, these can be quickly created or imported as avoidance zones from the cabin controls. Once the system is triggered, the hydraulic functions of the excavator can be slowed down or even brought to an entire stop.

• Zone Restrictions
  
  
  • We also can disable the excavator tracks' motion to stop any environmental or drainage trench breaches, for example. If you can survey it, you can avoid it.

• Underground Restrictions
  
  
  • Using the National Underground Asset Register, we able to enable control and safely excavate around services for power, gas, water and other potentially hazardous products buried beneath the surface. We can now set limits on dig depth to protect these assets and allow safe excavation when required. If you can map or detect it, you can avoid it.
  
  Highway Restrictions
  
  
  • We can set a pre-determined geospatially placed avoidance zone or virtual wall when working on live carriageways and public roads. We can now stop the excavator from breaching these areas and, importantly, the excavator's tracks. This system doesn’t knock the slew system off when travelling forward, so no reset is required. It takes away the risk of human error.

The engineering is pivotal for this to work – the operator is now collaborating with the technology to create more than a ‘that’ll do’ scenario, but instead a scenario in that, once parameters are set, they can’t be overridden. Co-ordinates don’t move, so all these hazards are marked exactly where we want them to be. This solution combines the Leica Geosystems MC1 machine control software and XWatch Safety solutions. It has been under a collaborative testing approach in the UK for some time, and we’ve had great results recently testing it on Kier sites. Working as a group to such results does really prove that we are stronger together.

To see more about what this system can do, please watch the video below: