Vigilance
NLT Digital Solutions
Vigilance is a communications hub for the most rugged environments. It is a new addition to NLT Digital’s mine communications and safety product range. Vigilance redefines safety in underground mining with pioneering bi-directional messaging technology and of course is intrinsically safe (IS). Meticulously crafted through years of experience and engineering prowess, the Vigilance unit establishes an unparalleled standard for industry safety.
Services
Industrial Design
Ergonomic Analysis
3D CAD Modelling
Engineering
Prototyping and Testing
Design For Manufacture
Visualisation
Production Implementation
User Interface Design
Applied Technology
With Vigilance, NLT Digital have produced a contemporary high performance LED lamp but added world first digital connectivity and communications. The built in camera, speaker, microphone and text capability allows miners to communicate from underground in a rapid, familiar way for the first time. They can send and receive massages and images in real time to assist with everything from daily communications to emergencies.
Katapult worked closely with NLT Digital to integrate the cutting edge technology in to a ruggedised form factor that is instantly identifiable as part of the NLT Digital product family. The distinctive form, colour and material breaks create an iconic look.
Challenging Environment
Underground coal mines are a hostile environment and miners themselves expect their gear to be effective, considered and bullet proof. Often, requirements are very site specific so suppliers need to be nimble enough to provide low volumes with custom solutions.
Our team developed a range of innovative features including removable end caps that allowed miners to swap to a left or right handed cable mount. In addition, these end caps hide a power ‘hot seat’ fitment to add additional modules like proximity tags in custom scenarios. This feature alone is an industry first.
Significant time was spent understanding industry use cases to ensure product drop points were properly protected, cable management was optimised, bespoke charging stations developed and even a custom belt clip designed to replace age-old leather tool bags. Products were prototyped, tested and refined to validate them before production to minimise development risk and assist with complex industry product approvals.
User Interface Design
Apart from the physical technology integration for Vigilance, the other key area was development of an all new digital UI to optimise the product UX and deliver on the Vigilance promise. Katapult’s digital team worked closely with NLT Digital’s developers to create icons and logic that were considered and appropriate for the use case.
The resulting UI provides an intuitive, highly readable interface that has been widely accepted by the miners. The appearance, logic and operational behaviours dovetail into the new Digital Mine platform that NLT Digital has developed, ensuring a more wholistic offering. In addition, the platform has been built to allow for future upgrades and additions, with new product lines set to join the Vigilance family over the next 12 months.
