Smart Asset Management through underground network visibility

OXEMS presents to IBM SmartCamp

A team led by OXEMS’s CEO, Kevin Gooding, showed how the OXEMS Solution makes specific points on utilities’ underground assets easily identifiable from above ground, and answered questions raised by the panel. Responding to questions, the OXEMS team was able to clarify:

  • How the OXEMS System’s ability to identify and re-locate specific points on underground assets makes it different from other underground identification systems that use GIS, GPR and the like
  • How this enables the OXEMS System to radically reduce the number of digging errors (currently, of the estimated 4 million holes dug by utilities in the UK each year, 1 million are in the wrong places) …
  • … and dramatically reduce the amount of ‘collateral damage’: far too frequently, when carrying out repairs or maintenance, utilities hit their own or other services’ assets
  • How the OXEMS System enables photographs and text to be easily and reliably associated with specific assets, and points on those assets, with the data available on the Database and in the field
  • How virtual Tags enable rollout of the OXEMS System to be accelerated for increased, cost-effective network coverage

The OXEMS System – passive Tags that are attached to underground assets, above ground Detectors, and fully integrated Database – has been trialled by major water companies and is about to go into large-scale use.

About OXEMS (Oxford Electromagnetic Solutions Limited)

After initial Tag development at the University of Oxford, OXEMS was set up in 2010 to develop and commercialise the integrated System of Tags, Detectors and fully integrated Database. OXEMS patented solution enables utilities to know the exact positions of specific points on buried assets, thereby enabling the reliable use of new ‘keyhole’ intervention techniques like Core ‘n’ Vac. The targeted interventions enabled by the OXEMS System lead to reduced road works disruption and significantly reduced impact on the environment, and enable local communities to continue to function efficiently.