MOBILARM has been awarded a $1.3m ‘Commercial Ready’ grant from the Australian Department of Industry Tourism and Resources, allowing it to accelerate the commercialisation of a failsafe man overboard alarm system.
According to the company, its crew safety product can be used on marine vessels and on large offshore structures such as oil and gas rigs and floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.
Target markets include the commercial fishing industry and the offshore oil and gas industry, both of which involve hazardous marine environments.
The Perth-based company claims its marine safety technology will provide an automatic and immediate alarm to allow for quick and effective rescues during man overboard emergencies.
The system involves attaching a small and lightweight pendant to every person on board the vessel. This device continuously transmits a signal via a closed wireless network to a central console.
A fall into the water breaks the signal and causes the system to raise the alarm. The system also records the GPS coordinates of the vessel during the event, allowing boats to return to the location to recover its personnel.
The company claims its system is superior to alternative marine safety products, which utilise a beacon which must be activated by the person in distress to transmit an emergency signal. Because the signal is sent to onshore locations and then relayed to the vessels in the vicinity of the incident, there is a critical time delay in rescue.
The grant will fund 50% of the research and development costs associated with the design and manufacture of the new technology.
The Australian Federal Government's ‘Commercial Ready' program is a competitive merit-based grant program supporting innovation and its commercialisation. It aims to stimulate greater innovation and productivity growth in the private sector by providing around $200 million per year in competitive grants to small and medium-sized businesses.
The Commercial Ready grant will be progressively paid to Mobilarm over a three-year period. Under the terms of the agreement, Mobilarm is required to match the grant funding on a dollar-for-dollar basis.