Deploying pedestrian detection technologies across council operations is essential to maximising the safety of both workers and the public, and minimising costly disruptions.
Minimising the risk of injuries around large mobile machinery remains a key concern for local governments, especially when operations bring plant into close proximity with the public.
Traditional people-plant separation systems have relied on tag-based alerts or administrative controls. In the dynamic environments of council facilities and project sites, these methods often fall short – especially when small errors can have devastating consequences.
Local governments across Australia are looking to adopt the latest innovations in pedestrian detection. Recent advancements in AI have seen new hazard prevention tools become available to councils that can help keep people safe around a variety of machinery, from street sweeping vehicles to construction and earthmoving machines.
As public works and infrastructure delivery grow in complexity, councils are under increasing pressure to ensure high safety standards across all operations. This is especially true in environments where machine-human interactions are common, and site boundaries can shift daily.
The integration of smart detection technologies is no longer a luxury but a necessity – especially as part of broader strategies to reduce incident rates and protect public trust. Councils also face stricter legislative requirements and community expectations.
By adopting AI-driven systems, councils can move beyond reactive safety responses and install proactive measures that prevent incidents from occurring in the first place. Additionally, these technologies can provide valuable data for post-incident analysis and training.
Pedestrian protection
Sentinel Vision AI is an intelligent pedestrian recognition and warning system created by Premier Rock Machinery (PRM) Engineering Services.
Sentinel Vision AI was developed over three years by PRM’s Brisbane-based team of experienced engineers. With an Australian Made certification, Sentinel Vision AI is specifically tailored for the unique safety requirements of the construction, waste, infrastructure and rail sectors. The system has been operating across facilities like landfills and transfer stations for more than five years, providing PRM with on-site learnings that help to inform Sentinel Vision AI’s continued improvement.
The system uses an array of cameras mounted to a mobile machine to detect in real time when a pedestrian enters the hazardous area.
Excavators, street sweepers, loaders, rubbish collection trucks and other plant all have different ranges of vision and motion, so the number and positioning of Sentinel Vision AI’s camera arrays are uniquely planned for each machine to cover all blind spots and assist the operator in handling the equipment as safely as possible.
Thanks to intelligent, AI-powered technology, Sentinel Vision AI’s detections of people within the set zone are highly reliable, meaning less false detections than traditional systems. This prevents operators from getting used to – and ignoring – the alarms. Additionally, Sentinel Vision AI achieves these high-reliability detections without the need for wearable tags or special clothing.
Double alerts
With its unique voice alarm speaker system, Sentinel Vision can ‘talk’ to pedestrians who have entered a potentially hazardous area, cutting through the typical noise of a work site, and urging them to take steps to avoid the danger – all the while notifying the operator of the detected risk.
This two-pronged response has been reported to develop long-term behavioural change among workers regularly near heavy mobile machinery. Over time, Sentinel Vision AI has been recorded to activate less and less frequently, as people learn to recognise the appropriate distance to maintain between themselves and active equipment, greatly reducing the risk of accidents and near misses.
Always improving
PRM’s extensive experience with mobile machinery across diverse sectors ensures that its systems are purpose-built for the realities of a work site. The Sentinel Vision hardware features industry-standard screens and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) designed specifically to handle harsh conditions.
PRM’s continued industry presence and innovative adoption of new technology helps it to continually develop improvements for its tools.
Sentinel Vision AI now boasts new datalogging capabilities, allowing it to record videos of detection and events and store the GPS location, time and other critical information. These logs can be downloaded straight from the system and used to debrief after incidents and plan to minimise future recurrences.
Alternatively, event reports can be uploaded to the cloud, providing seamless and secure storage of incident data. GPS Heatmaps of the detections are also uploaded, allowing supervisors to pinpoint hotspots and high-risk areas to help with review and improvement of traffic management plans. Any system faults are also uploaded and can be monitored to assist in system maintenance. The system also features prestarts that are recorded and tracked to ensure it is working correctly.
More reliable than human spotters, Sentinel Vision AI represents the next step in safety for all projects that rely on mobile machinery. With reliable detections, sturdy hardware and proven results, local governments can rest easy with Sentinel Vision AI on watch.
To find out more about Sentinel Vision AI, visit prmengineering.com.au, or get in touch at sales@prmeng.com.au.
