The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), one of the developers of the world’s most ambitious tourism project, is deploying an IoT-based security solution for its workforce and fleet of vehicles on the west coast of Saudi Arabia.
The IoT solution provided by Actility & Abeeway will be deployed by MachinesTalk, which will leverage a LoRaWAN network to cover more than 3,500 square kilometers, and will use the nationally developed and hosted IoT platform “ThingsTalk” to unify and provide location-based information for 36,000 workers whose data is stored on Actility’s ThingPark Wireless IoT platform. Abeeway compact trackers, meanwhile, will report data from 3,000 vehicles.
A colossal project
The Red Sea Giga project involves the development of land and property on the Saudi Red Sea coast. The project is focused on tourism and hopes to contribute to the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision 2030 strategy.
The project is expected to contribute $5.86 billion per year to Saudi GDP when completed. It will then cover 28,000 square kilometers of pristine islands, sweeping across desert dunes, mountain ranges and volcanoes. The first phase will be completed by 2023 when 3,000 hotel rooms will be built, as well as an international airport, marina and leisure centers. Visitor numbers will be capped at one million people annually in line with environmental commitments.
LoRaWAN is particularly interesting in terms of project sustainability because it can serve a multitude of IoT use cases, not only during construction, but also after the project is complete. The same network infrastructure can be used to monitor and optimize waste management, parking, lighting, power and water services, remote asset monitoring, to monitor the environment and much more.
“We asked ourselves how we could improve safety on our site and allow work to proceed smoothly, while managing more than 36,000 workers across 3,500 square kilometers. How could we keep workers safe in case of a health emergency or prevent workers from getting lost in remote desert locations or on islands? How could we control access and track the 3,000 vehicles of several subcontractors on the site, delivering materials, tools and transporting employees?”
reports Ian Williamson, TRSDC’s director of project delivery.
The IoT solution
Abeeway smart badges and tracking devices allow TRSDC to identify workers and vehicles and secure the construction area. Individual access rights will be granted based on role, responsibility, worker category. In addition, the ability to remotely identify vehicles, geo-locate perimeters and set up alerts based on worker and vehicle access violations will further enhance security.
An alert command will allow workers in distress to send an SOS signal to TRSDC’s safety and emergency response center, allowing response teams to be dispatched directly to the journeyman’s job site without losing time. Recently, TRSDC opened its central medical center, which will provide the highest quality of medical care and assistance to those living and working on site during the construction phase.
All marked vehicles will have an estimated time of arrival to ensure that tasks are not delayed. In addition, alerts will be triggered for inactive workers or vehicles to improve staff supervision.
Abeeway’s long-running devices allow for continuous use for months and years with LoRaWAN connectivity. The devices operate both indoors and outdoors with their multi-technology geolocation system, incorporating Abeeway’s patented low-power GPS, WiFi connectivity and Bluetooth Low Energy.
