A Belfast small business has developed a product assist the Royal Navy locate its personnel on board.
Kinsetsu has created a resilient and scalable platform to accurately account for and locate personnel on Royal Navy ships.
it provides immediate insight of all those on board as well as visitors to ships.
Funded through the government-backed Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Themed Competition, Get the Ship in Shape, Kinsetsu’s innovation has been procured by the Royal Navy for use on board HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
Kinsetsu had not previously worked with defence, but their DASA journey helped them realise the defence potential of their personnel accounting and locating innovation, and they now have a thriving defence-centric business.
A DASA statement said: “Royal Navy vessels are highly complex and operate in extremely hazardous environments, with crews that can number into the thousands.
“However, navies around the world, including the Royal Navy, use a simple manual peg in/out board to record the number of people on board a ship. This system lacks digitalisation, which makes it difficult to efficiently locate and track personnel and visitors on larger vessels, such as the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers.
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“To ensure the safety of the crew, as well as visitors, a modern and reliable personnel accounting system (PAS) solution is vital to gain visibility of all souls on board a ship.”
Kinsetsu had enjoyed success providing accounting and locating technologies to the NHS, Government and Commercial sectors, but had never considered the defence potential of their technology. This was until DASA published the Get the Ship in Shape Competition, which helped them realise how the work they were already doing in NHS, Government and Commercial sectors could help drive safety within defence. The PAS solution was born.
Their innovation comprises a network of ruggedized deckhead and bulkhead-mounted terminals, placed at ingress and egress locations and high-traffic areas throughout a ship. The ship’s crew use their ID card at a terminal when they enter or leave the ship. Visitors are provided with a visitor card to capture arrival and departure, providing traceability of their visit.
DASA co-founder Jackie Crooks said: “DASA has been invaluable in raising our profile and enabling access to the defence and security sector, which we could never have achieved on our own. “Their collaborative approach, pairing us with subject matter experts from the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and the Royal Navy, informed our deployment of the solution within the defence operating environment.
“PAS was delivered in three phases, each robustly and rigorously tested at scale, before being adopted as a production system by the Royal Navy.
“We are immensely proud of our journey from micro SME to scale-up, entrusted by the Royal Navy to enhance safety for all who serve at sea.”