APAC - Advanced Positioning for Airborne Construction
In cooperation with Ericsson
Umeå Institute Of Design
10 weeks
APAC (Advanced Positioning for Airborne Construction) is a navigation and communication system for temporary use in construction sites. APAC is at work where there’s a lot at stake: With a flexible setup, it offers high-precision positioning for any type of construction. With an easy and intuitive operation, APAC aims to create big impact in safety with minimal effort.
An introduction to APAC.
USER GROUP: TOWER CLIMBERS
Tower climbers specialize in maintenance, installation, and decommissioning of cellular and radio tower components. They frequently work in great heights, with heavy equipment and in high dependency to their team members.
Physical distance impedes the flow of information
Often times the type of work requires the crew to be physically distant from oneanother.
However, in most of the tasks they are still highly dependend and need to communicate constantly.
Involvement of externals may cause communication issues
Often the cell site technicians depend on the help of externals, such as crane drivers or helicopter pilots. These are involved in some of the most intense steps of the process, thus a flawless flow of information from the get-go is especially important here.
Helicopter noise/wind/ environmental constraints
Cell site technicians have to be ready to work in any conditions. We experienced both darkness and noise, which can be a constraint for an efficient flow of information between the workers.
Mixed media may cause loss/miss of information
The nature of the job demands for the technicians to improvise on the spot. Subsequently, we noticed a lot of different media used to communicate. While this may be effective as it is playing to each techniques strengths, information is spread out and may be lost as a consequence.
To ensure a safe operation, a good flow of information is critical.
How might we improve the communication between the different parties involved in the construction?
Introducing APAC.
APAC (Advanced Positioning for Airborne Construction) is a navigation and communication system for temporary use in construction sites. APAC consists of two products: APAC pins are the backbone to the system, creating a universal and highly adaptive way to track the position of any object. APAC UI acts as the interface for the receiving end, such as crane drivers or, as in this case, helicopter-pilots.
Introducing APAC.
APAC (Advanced Positioning for Airborne Construction) is a navigation and communication system for temporary use in construction sites. APAC consists of two products: APAC pins are the backbone to the system, creating a universal and highly adaptive way to track the position of any object. APAC UI acts as the interface for the receiving end, such as crane drivers or, as in this case, helicopter-pilots.
The use of multiple APAC pins allows for accurate positioning of objects. The information gathered by the APAC pins is being displayed to the pilot through the APAC UI in the cockpit.
Using APAC pins can also be used to geo-tag objects or obstacles, for example to set up no-fly zones.
Release with confidence.
Today crews use gestures to communicate between the mast and the cockpit, which can be hard to pick up. With the press of the programable button, the technicians confirm a successful fastening and allow for a secure release of the mast by the pilot.
Getting the height right.
Looking down from the top, the distance between the mast carried and the one on the ground is very hard to estimate. APAC UI offers an intuitive interface to keep track of the exact distance between the objects, preventing severe injuries to the tower climbers.
Track any object.
Future-proof.
Thanks to the flexible setup, a variety use cases across industries are possible - bringing safety to the construction sites of today, but also enabling fully autonomous use-cases in the future.