Back to Work - Safely

Covid-19 has created an unprecedented situation of emergency lockdown worldwide that has impacted severely business both worldwide and in the UK. The Office of Budget Responsibility warns that the lockdown could wipe out up to 35% of our GDP. There is an enormous pressure on governments to ease the lockdown as soon as possible so to let business go back to normal. However, the return to normalcy will not be easy and some analysts warn that we should consider some forms of lockdown as the new normalcy for the next few years. In any case, this return will not be to business as usual in the short or medium term. Return to work will be in stages, with only part of the personnel back to work so to be able to impose distance measures - some analysts expect companies to command back to work about one third of the workforce for the first period. Companies will have the requirement to guarantee that their operations are compliant with any temporary or long term measure imposed by the government, including social distancing in the workplace and expedite identification of outbreaks. This will require new ways of organising works both in terms of physical spaces and in terms of work organisation.

The goal of this project is to create a technology and methodology able to support these companies and organisations in this return process by providing support in (i) keeping the appropriate distance among employees while on premises; (ii) control communal areas (e.g. bathrooms, meeting rooms, etc.) to detect overcrowding; (iii) support planning of teamwork to minimise cross-contagion and (iv) ensuring that employees at risk (e.g. with existing conditions or of older age) are safeguarded.

The technology is low cost, privacy preserving for the employees and of easy installation. It is based on a combination of mobile technologies and a limited number of beacons/detectors to be self installed on the premises. The solution provides an organisational dashboard to support control and support demonstrating compliance with the new regulations.

In the project, we will build on our unique technology for tracking individuals and items. We will develop and expand it with a new range of capabilities, from new improved algorithms for Bluetooth colocation detection, to ultrasound social distance detection. We also plan expand our customer base and market by addressing higher education, energy, utilities, retail and manufacturers (including the food and automotive industries), as well as as well as other industries (eg. hospitality, events, cultural infrastructures) in the UK. Furthermore, international markets in the USA, Europe and Australia will also be targeted (with the same business verticals) to expand the size of the opportunity to Aeqora.

We aim to commercialise a first product within 1-2 months after project end to be followed by a fully fledged product within 6-8 months.