FAQ
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General
OWL monitors the location of the OWL wearable devices using enhanced satellite positioning.
With our enhanced positioning systems, OWL will provide better than 0.5m accuracy and typical accuracy is less than 100mm. A substantial improvement on traditional GPS systems.
OWL has both audible, haptic (vibration) and visual alerts via both the wearable device and App to alert you if you are in harm’s way.
The web Portal is the control centre of OWL, allowing your administrators to create Zones (e.g. access routes, hazard areas), add Users (plant and/or people) and create Tasks (e.g. programme or work activities).
Internally you will have appointed OWL administrators to support you with the day to day operation of OWL.
A dedicated Project Manager from Onwave will also be assigned to your project to assist where further support is required. Training will be provided to all administrators and users, along with supporting manuals and documentation.
OWL will be able to be deployed in tunnels and buildings with small beacons either permanently or temporarily deployed.
Yes, we have both magnetic and fixed mounts for attaching wearable devices to items of plant and equipment.
You can create exclusion zones around items of plant that will move as the item of plant moves. If a user enters a plant exclusion zone then we can immediately alert them and others.
User
If you forget your password you can log onto the OWL Portal and click forgotten password to receive an email, or contact your administrator who will be able to set and send a new password via email.
To reset your password please log onto the OWL Portal (through a browser, not the app). Click the user icon in the top righthand corner of and head to account settings. There you will be able to reset your password to something more memorable.
To ensure data security all users are automatically logged out when on the portal after a set period of time to prevent unwanted access to information.
The App may also ask you to log in in order to ensure that the App is up to date with the latest version and shape information.
No, OWL users can just use a wearable device to locate them and alert them .
There is the additional option of connecting the OWL App to the wearable device to use the accurate location data from the wearable device rather than the standard GPS accuracy of your smartphone.
The OWL App also lets you see your location in relation to the work and hazard zones, giving the field user greatly enhanced locational and situational awareness.
For any concerns about using your personal mobile device please contact your appointed admins who will discuss potential options based on their agreed policies and process for the implementation of OWL.
Your company or the company whose OWL environment you are logged into, will be the Data Controller. Onwave will only be a Data Processor.
Each Company will have their own physically and logically separated Database to restrict access to the Data.
OWL is hosted within UK Data Centres within Microsoft Azure and this is where all data is held.
Customers can request to have an in-country OWL environment but this will carry as cost and time associated with creation.
Data is held within the platform while the company has an active project once a project comes to an end Onwave will only retain the data for a further 90 days. Full details of our policies for data retention etc are available within the OWL Privacy Policy which can be provided on request.
App
The OWL App, utilises the GPS of the smartphone to locate the user and provide them with a contextual view of hazards at their location. The Field User can select these zones to view further information and will receive audible and vibratory alerts via the phone should they enter a zone with configured alerts.
Privacy functions prevent location tracking outside of a defined geographical perimeter or defined working hours.
Wearable Devices
The Zero and Pro are GPS based wearable devices with the Zero typically carried by people and the Pro attached to items of plant and equipment by either a fixed or magnetic mount. The magnetic mount is ideal for attaching to hired in plant.
The Plus is a high accuracy device that provides <100 mm location accuracy compared to typical GPS accuracy of 1-2 m. This device also provides audible, visual (strobe) and haptic alerting with a magnetic attachment for mounting onto construction plant.
The device can also be used in conjunction with the App to enhance the accuracy of the location data used by the App. This device requires the deployment of a small base-station to deliver its increased accuracy, with the base-station covering an operational radius of 20 km.
In the unlikely event that a hired wearable device is lost or damaged, please contact your Administrator for OWL.
There are a variety of choices as we understand that people may have individual preferences.
The wearable device comes with an in-built mounting stud that can fix into numerous mounts, such as an armband, belt clip, sew on-patch, belt loop etc. As such, it is tailored to how you each individual wants to wear it.
OWL Network Rail approved hardware is certified to IP66 Standards which means it is IP66 Protected from total dust ingress and protected from high pressure water jets from any direction.
OWL hardware is designed with patented Klickfast™ technology. This means devices can be easily mounted to a range of custom designed clips. These clips can be added to clothing, include magnets for mounting to plant and come in a range of styles.
We typically supply custom made armbands which can be worn by the user, and which allow the tags to be simply connected and removed at the end of the shift.
The key consideration in placing the device will be to ensure that the Antenna (area with the cylindrical step) is not covered and that the device alerts can be received by the wearer.
The device can provide the following Alerts, these Alerts are configurable for different patterns, sounds and indications. The Configuration is done within the OWL Portal and is generally set to be consistent for the Customer. The Customer is free to create new alerts as needed.
The Plus devices have the following alerting mechanisms:
• Haptic (Vibration – Multi Pattern)
• Audible (Buzzer – Multi Sound)
• Strobe (multi colour options)
The OLED screen displays information about the device status it can also be used for creation of zones within the field for example when a user needs to create an exclusion zone for the task they are undertaking.
The audible alert has been configured to sound at 78.3dB sound pressure level at 0.5m, while the device can output at far higher levels, sound alerts were configured to meet H&S safe limits and based on testing during on site trials.
In simple terms the device will last for up to 18 Hours based on a 2Hz (2 times per second location update rate).
The device takes approximately 3 hours to charge from flat using the power dock provided.
The Customer can configure a specific alert (Haptic/Audible or Visual) to indicate when the battery is low. The configuration is done by the Project Administrator and will apply to all devices within your project.
The battery levels for devices are shown in real time within the OWL portal.
Battery and Data Usage
Onwave understand that you do not want your location to be logged when you are not at work and have left the site so we have implemented protection in the OWL Platform to ensure that this dosent happen.
Privacy functions prevent location monitoring outside of a defined geographical perimeter or defined working hours.
Privacy functions prevent location monitoring outside of a defined geographical perimeter or defined working hours.
Onwave have a clear and defined Data Management Policy which sets out the roles and responsibilities of all members of the business in relation to the protection of personal data. Onwave have an appointed Data Protection Officer who monitors compliance and ensures that the data that we hold is classified in accordance with the GDPR standard.
Onwave are an ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials certified organisation, with the requirments of the standard embedded into our Company Management system to ensure our operations are delivered to high quality and in compliance with the standard. The requirements of ISO 27001 are closely related to those associated with other security and data frameworks such as NIS.
The mobile phone battery lasted on a single charge for over 40 hours. Given working time restrictions, this would enable the use of the OWL app with or without a connected OWL wearable device for the duration of a single shift.
The overall battery life will also depend on the use of the mobile devices for other applications while OWL is operating.
No – The simple answer is that you don’t have to install base stations. We have a couple of ways in which we can provide devices with RTK correction data:
- using our own base stations, or
- via 3rd party subscription to an RTK service
Onwave have the facility to provide a subscription service.Privacy functions prevent location monitoring outside of a defined geographical perimeter or defined working hours.
At Onwave we have engineered our own RTK base stations for several reasons:
• Affordability, base stations allow us to eliminate the cost of 3rd Party Subscriptions. For relatively small volumes of users, having OWL base stations is more economical.
• Greater control of the product (one stop shop) with less reliance on 3rd party solutions.
• Application to other technologies
RTK stands for Real Time Kinematics it is a highly accurate technique used to determine the position of a receiver using the signal received from Global Navigation Satellite-based positioning Systems (GNSS) like GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, and GLONASS.
RTK uses the phase of the carrier signal to eliminate timing errors and to determine the location of a receiver. As a result, it is significantly more accurate than traditional timing based GNSS solutions found in devices like smartphones. RTK is typically used in precision surveying technology including drones.
RTK is important as traditional GNSS receivers, estimate their location using the differential in times transmitted from multiple satellites.
As a result, the accuracy GNSS systems is only guaranteed to between 1 – 4 metres.
This means traditional GNSS/GPS systems simply cannot provide the accuracy needed for many safety applications and could even increase risk if deployed in some scenarios.
To combat this inherent inaccuracy in GNSS, OWL uses RTK to provide centimetre-level accuracy.
OWL base stations are designed to be simple to install with low maintenance.
They do not need to be installed in any particular location, as such, they can be installed anywhere that is easily accessible with a good view of the sky. Installation is typically completed within 3 hours.
They are designed to take power from any supply between 12v and 240V and this is the only requirement.
We are currently working on a fully independent unit that will work based on Solar and that will be completely stand alone.
Each Base station can provide good quality correction data for any devices within at least a 20km radius of the base station location.
Outside this radius the correction data obtained from the base station tends to deteriorate affecting the accuracy of the wearable devices, we stop using the data altogether at 30km radius which is why we tend to deploy our base stations with a separation of around 20km as this gives us redundancy and ensures accuracy.
To use an RTK service you need two items:
1. a special RTK chip within the device, that can process an RTK data stream,
2. an RTK ground network (base-stations) which has surveyed in locations that can act as reference for the correction data.
The data used is a format called RTCM, to get this RTCM data to the chip within the wearable device (Tag) we use a protocol called NTRIP (Network Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol).
As the data flow is via IP (a standard networking protocol used by most IT equipment) the communication does not rely on a local radio broadcast from the base stations, it is transferred from the base stations to our cloud servers using the mobile network(s). It is then distributed to all devices within an effective area, these devices process the data on the RTK chip to give a very accurate position (c100mm).
Our RTK base stations user similar technology to our wearable devices, however they are engineered to provide greater resilience with N+1 components, this ensures that they are reliable.
We have an external power supply which is permanently wired into the device to ensure that they are available 24/7/365. Each module also contains a cellular modem and roaming SIMs so that it can communicate with the OWL Cloud Platform.
Our RTK base stations already cover large areas of the country, where we do not currently have coverage we can combine our base station infrastructure with that provided by 3rd Parties. To check where we already have coverage just contact the sales team; sales@owl-bi.com