Hexagon’s Xwatch and RodRadar Launch Security System for the Prevention of Collisions With Utilities

At the Las Vegas Convention Center, from March 3 to 7, Xwatch Safety Solutions and RodRadar will present their new safety system designed to prevent strikes on buried utilities. The integrated system, featuring Live Dig Radar (LDR), automatically stops excavator bucket movement during active excavation as soon as subsurface utilities are detected. In general, strikes on buried utilities remain one of the construction industry’s biggest challenges in terms of both safety and cost. In the United States, around 400,000 incidents are reported every year, resulting in billions of dollars in costs and hundreds of fatalities. Nearly 50% of strikes occur because utilities were not located or were mislocated.

 

“RodRadar has solved the detection problem during excavation, by integrating their Live Dig Radar technology directly into our safety-grade hydraulic control.”

said Dan Leaney, Director of Sales at Xwatch Safety Solutions. RodRadar’s Live Dig Radar, an AI-driven system, uses a GPR sensor integrated directly into the excavator bucket to enable real-time detection of buried utilities during excavation. Together with Xwatch, when the LDR detects a buried utility, Xwatch’s safety-grade hydraulic control system automatically stops the excavator bucket to prevent a strike, while operators retain override capability.