Ultra-wideband safety detection system
- Post by: Tobias Larsson
- 11th January 2026
- No Comment
Technological improvement for the construction industry
Programme: Course project (add course code below in comment)
Course: MT2573
Corporate partner: Volvo Construction Equipment
Completed: January 2026
Challenge: Bigger picture from site operations
Measure productivity on site,
Visualize this,
(connect to decision support, decision arena),
Map the process: How to trust the data -> make decisions
Key is also Safety -> drop in productivity…
How can we make sure that safety and productivity go hand-in-hand…
Should be a zoomed-out perspective of the whole process (not just Volvo machines)
”from rock to road”… perspective of the customer
Solution: a Ultra-Wideband Safety Detection System design for the worksites. We have built it around three simple components. First, the worker wears a UWB tag integrated into their protection equipment, which is passive and always active. Second, the machine is equipped with a set of anchors designed and a tag as a retrofit kit, so it can work well with both old and brand new machines. Finally, inside the cab, the operator has access to an added screen where a simple and easy to read radar is shown with additional lights in the cabin to indicate breaches of their defined saftey distance
Impact: The impact has not yet been validated but it aims to decrease the vehicle foot-worker collisions on worksites whilst having a minimal impact on productivity
Prototypes: We used Arduino Unos, Pozyx anchors to gather both the exact positioning of each wearable tag and the range between them and the center tag. We also used LoRa and ESP32 modules to make the data transfer wireless.
We designed it with a Dual-Layer Reliability approach.
The First Layer provides the exact Position of workers’ tag. Under good conditions, the system runs in “Positioning Mode”, giving the operator the exact location, identity of the worker and the distance between him and the machine.
However, we know UWB can struggle in metal-rich environments. That is why the Second Layer acts as a Fail-Safe. If precise positioning quality degrades, the system automatically falls back to a “Range-Only Mode”.
Quotes from sponsor/partner: Next step for the project would be further testing in realistic environments with production grade hardware as the current prototypes performance is limited by it
Project team:
- Fabian Konforta – MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management, class of 2026 – BTH, Blekinge, Sweden
- Jules SIDOS – Master’s degree in general engineering, class of 2027 – ECAM LaSalle, Lyon, France
- Pontus Åberg – MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management, class of 2026 – BTH, Blekinge, Sweden
- Tarek Kalthom – MSc in Mechanical engineering, class of 2026 – BTH, Blekinge, Sweden
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