Port of Singapore Authority which operates the busiest port in the world in terms of shipping tonnage, with an annual average of 140,000 vessel calls. The potential threats and disruption of the workforce due to COVID-19 could significantly impact both the provision of daily necessities to Singapore as well as regional trade flow.
Over 6,000 staff worked at the port with over 3,000 partners and suppliers involved and supporting the 365 days, 24/7 port operations. PSA needed a sustainable and integrated solution for effective pandemic risk control, mitigation and intervention, to ensure business continuity with minimal manpower overhead.
An innovation challenge was called with the support of IMDA on the National Innovation Challenge Platform, in which Qonda System participated and won with its solution proposal.
Utilizing a UWB (ultra-wide-band) tags solution from Ubudu which can accurately scan other UWB tags to an accuracy of less than 10cm, an integrated safe distancing solution integrated with an automatic entry barrier system was proposed.
Automatic uploading of tags, location, and tag interaction information via BLE networks to the cloud platform allowed real-time live tracking and contact tracing to be performed with minimum effort.
Tag’s built-in haptic vibration and blinking LED provided immediate feedback and alerts to the wearer if they are too close to each other and not maintaining the recommended safe distancing. Workers’ team grouping and exclusion areas feature reduced unnecessary tag feedback as these workers by default required to work together as a team where close contact is unavoidable.