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21 April 2021
Smart Helmet by ARMZ and Rostelecom Won in Mining Industry Digitalization Competition
The Smart Helmet positioning system project, that is implemented by ARMZ Uranium Holding Co./Mining Division of ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation and Rostelecom, PJSC, won the first place in the competition for effective digital projects of mining enterprises — Mining Industry 4.0 in the Industrial Safety, Occupational Health, and Environment Protection nomination. The awarding ceremony was held in Moscow, at MiningWorld Russia, an international exhibition of machinery and equipment for the mining and processing industry.
A total of 40 projects were submitted for the competition. The finalists were the developments by Norilsk Nickel Mining-and-Metallurgical Integrated Works, PJSC; Vorkutaugol, JSC (Severstal, PJSC); and Khiagda, JSC (managed by ARMZ Uranium Holding Co.). The projects were evaluated by an independent jury including 19 CEOs of leading mining and metallurgical holdings.
Tatiana Aprelskaya, the Competition Director and the Head of the Organizing Committee, commented on: «This year, the Competition graced us with a variety of projects: some are aimed at comprehensive digitalization of processes and entire production process stages; others focus on the improvements in certain important areas. All projects have provided enterprises with a clear measurable effect: improving the production and economic performance, minimizing the equipment downtime, reducing the paperwork, increasing the overall efficiency».
The Smart Helmet digital solution was implemented in 2019–2020 at Khiagda, JSC engaged in mining the strategic metal in the Bauntovsky-Evenki District of the Republic of Buryatia. This is the Russia’s first project of digital personal protective equipment. It improves the industrial safety by remotely tracking the employees’ movement and monitoring their compliance with the safety rules at workplace. Smart helmets transmit a signal to the dispatcher in the event of an employee falling or being hit; they make it possible to control the people’s location in an open space, and to follow their movement and health status during the work.
Smart Helmet is part of a unified digital strategy of ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation. It has been implemented in cooperation with the IT Department of ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. According to Andrey Gladyshev, Director General, Khiagda, JSC, «This project allowed us to address the main problem of enhancing the physical safety of our employees, which helped the Company to get closer to adherence to the zero injuries principles. We also got an economic return».
For Rostelecom, the Smart Helmet project has become the starting point for creating a whole portfolio of industrial solutions aimed at automating business processes, at improving industrial safety and labor productivity.
Andrey Zdarov, Director, Buryat branch of Rostelecom: «There is a growing demand for IoT technologies among businesses, including in the mining and energy sectors. Rostelecom offers intelligent solutions in the information development, data storage and processing, creating communication networks, and optimizing work processes. Our Smart Helmet solution has proven its effectiveness in practice. Digital personal protective equipment can be modified, taking into account the specifics of each company, and replicated at its production sites».
