Source: aithority.com
Jacobs leverages the power of digitization to help facilitate the safe return to on-premise work environments providing location-aware technology and automated intelligence supporting COVID-19 contact tracing efforts in the event of an outbreak.
Jacobs’ ion is an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data integration and visualization platform built on an open API framework to easily integrate with existing solutions or off-the-shelf sensors. By challenging a “business as usual” mindset, the Jacobs team leveraged the platform’s mature technical foundation to add the necessary commercial off-the-shelf sensor components to make the solution viable in an accelerated timeframe.
“This is a great example of Jacobs innovating at the speed of the market, as we leveraged our leading IIoT IP and deep domain knowledge of the clients on-premise operations to solve their toughest challenges with our ion solution and rolled out the first customer ready prototypes in less than a month,” said Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions Senior Vice President and General Manager for Advancing National Security Jennifer Richmond. “We leveraged our scale across Jacobs to rapidly deploy new proprietary features and domain expertise to quickly release new functionality into the platform and rapidly fielded the solution by collaborating with our clients and our market facing operations teams – a partnership that created an immediate feedback loop as we updated the solution in near real-time to shorten the deployment timeline.”
By implementing ion, a large global confidential client improved safety of personnel at the job site through monitoring of social/physical distancing and maximum occupancy for key areas, and by implementing an automated and robust contact tracing capability. The impact on operations has been significant, with one industry executive noting that the innovation is a game-changing solution for return-to-work scenarios in the construction and manufacturing industries in their new operational environment.
The ion platform integrates hardware, IIoT devices, analytics and applications with a robust engine for rules, events, visualization and notifications into a single tailorable platform, available as Software as a Service (SaaS). The solution uses active monitoring to enhance security and reliability and automates processes for personnel safety and accountability with location tracking, mustering and emergency notification. Commercially available wearable technology is used to monitor worker interactions, while taking care to avoid phone and GPS-based solutions that can have a negative impact on personal privacy concerns.