Protract: Prolock - The Communicating Smart Padlock

The countries infrastructure for water, electricity, rail and telephone are protected in rural
areas by over 1M padlocks. Unauthorised access to this infrastructure could remain
undetected for days or weeks. The remoteness of the sites often makes guarding by patrol
impossible. In these days of a heightened state of alert this could be a risk waiting to happen.
Management of keys for this infrastructure is notoriously difficult. Bunches of keys are
regularly lost or worse still stolen making the risk of theft or water pollution made difficult to
attribute.
This project aims to reduce this risk to the nation by developing an electronic padlock that can
raise an alarm when disturbed. In addition the access code can be changed at a moments
notice or as soon as the pin is compromised by a staff leaver. The ability to control and
monitor what’s happening to critical infrastructure is seen by the industry as a major
breakthrough for security.
With the advent of the Internet of Things the ability to link an incursion or break in to other
security intelligence systems will make tracking and detection of intruders more likely. This
project makes use of IoT technology to ensure future connectivity is a given.
Protrack will use a new patented to build in the tamper alert functionality that will open up
new horizons unobtainable by conventional dumb locks. The project will also address the
wider integration of security systems to the Smart City.