Innovative man overboard system receives $1.3m award

The Perth-based inventor of an innovative failsafe man overboard alarm system, Mobilarm, will be significantly accelerating the commercialisation of its technology after being awarded a $1.3 million 'Commercial Ready' grant from the Australian Department of Industry Tourism & Resources.

The company, located in Applecross, has developed a unique marine safety technology designed to provide an automatic and immediate alarm in a man overboard emergency.

The system requires each person on board the vessel to wear a small, lightweight pendant that continuously transmits a signal (via a closed wireless network) to a central console on the boat. If a person falls into the water, the signal is broken, causing the system to raise the alarm. The system immediately records the GPS coordinates of the man overboard, enabling the boat to quickly return to that location to recover the person.

Alternative marine safety products which use an emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) must be manually activated by the person in distress in order to transmit the emergency signal. The signal is sent to an onshore location, which then relays it to any known vessels in the vicinity.

This adds critical time to the rescue operation, increasing the risk of hyperthermia and death.

Mobilarm’s system dramatically increases the likelihood of a fast and effective rescue in man overboard events, with the existing MOBi-lert product range having proved effective on vessels of up to 33 metres in length.

The design has won numerous awards, including the Safety at Sea award at the 2005 Seatrade Awards (the first Australian company ever to do so); the Sport & Leisure category at the 2006 Australian Design Awards; and was a finalist at the WA Industry & Export Awards in the Emerging Exporter category.

Mobilarm’s CEO, Lindsay Lyon, said the grant would help the company focus on improving the safety of the marine working environment in several major global industries.

“We believe this is an essential safety product that will significantly reduce the fatalities associated with man overboard incidents,” Lyon said.

“This grant will enable Mobilarm to expand our product range to provide effective safety solutions to people working on vessels and marine structures of any size.”

The company is developing a crew safety product that can be deployed on vessels of any length, as well as on large offshore structures such as oil and gas rigs and floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.