The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded a $825,000 grant to the College of Natural Resources last month to pay for technology in support of the development of safety techniques.
The college will use the funds to install GPS technology on heavy equipment used for logging. Traditionally, managers track their employees in a centralized way that is limited by radio or phone communication. The addition of GPS technology will allow workers to track each other while on the job.
“Logging is one of the most dangerous occupations in the country”, said Robert Keefe, lead primary investigator on the project and an assistant professor in the College of Natural Resources.
The CDC has an interest in the project through its organization, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Keefe wrote the proposal for the project with colleagues Alistair Smith, Jan Eitel, Randy Brooks and Soren Newman.
The project is currently in the earliest stages. With the proposal funded, the team is interviewing loggers and plans to work with private logging contractors and equipment companies to get a better understanding of the issues loggers have with current systems. They also want to find out what loggers would like and be able to use in a new system. Development and design experiments will begin this fall and coming spring.
The grant funds cover equipment, research and labor costs. The college carries out experiments with students and contractors to test and develop the systems. Keefe said this will include hiring a dozen or so UI students to work on the project. The real-time location data possible with GPS will speed up planning and increase the safety of project execution, Keefe said.
Finally, specially designed GPS technology will allow forest workers to keep track of each other, Keefe said. Managers can keep track of their employees and equipment, and workers can coordinate their positions with others on the same project.
“The technology will allow for the characterizing of the movement of people and equipment that lead to unsafe situations,” Keefe said.
Keefe said they are also hoping to adapt the technology for firefighting uses.
“For me, this work is both fun and extremely meaningful,” Keefe said.
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan