On 18–22 March, SPbGASU is hosting the National (All-Russian) scientific and practical conference “Modern technologies in engineering systems and urban services”. Representatives of the scientific community, manufacturing companies, teachers and students discuss industry problems and demonstrate their own innovative developments, which in practice show high efficiency.

Plenary session of the conference

On the first day of the conference, a meeting was held at the SPbGASU training site “Smart Labor”. The participants discussed current aspects of technosphere safety and clearly assessed the advantages of the training site in the learning process in this area.

– There are no such training centers in Russia anymore, and in terms of functionality it surpasses its foreign analogues. This is a platform for training that is as close as possible to the realities of the production environment, and a rallying point for innovations in the field of safety. The training site is a full-fledged educational complex, which includes an interactive educational environment of nine modules of active training on various types of construction and installation works, three modules of practical training and an educational computer class for conducting lectures, practical classes, testing using the computer training program “Smart Labout”, a highly detailed virtual environment simulating a training site, which makes it possible to undergo training remotely on the basis of VR and PC platforms, - noted acting Dean of the SPbGASU Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Municipal Services Andrey Nikulin.

Andrey Nikulin speaking about the trainig site

All modules reproduce real accidents, which, as production statistics show, are the most common in construction practice. Those present noted that holding scientific and practical conferences at such a training site is mutually beneficial for the university and industry enterprises: with such close interaction, the university is able to more quickly respond to requests from production workers to supplement training modules in the light of changing legislative requirements for ensuring occupational safety and new approaches in construction, and the industry gets the opportunity to train its employees in a high-quality manner and in a convenient format with the competencies necessary in this area.

Andrey Nikulin also reminded that SPbGASU was given the status of a federal innovation platform (FIP) to implement in 2022–2026 an innovative educational project “Modern educational technologies to ensure occupational safety in the construction industry”. This will include development of an innovative methodology that forms a safe behavioral model of workers on construction sites using innovative teaching methods.

New technologies and digital solutions are becoming the main driver for the development of the construction industry, increasing both employee safety and production efficiency. This was emphasized by the president of the R-Pro concern, director of the Institute of Innovative Technologies in Business, Aleksey Korablev, when talking about comprehensive solutions in the field of digitalization and robotization in construction.

– We create a digital twin of a construction site or premises, which allows us to embed three-dimensional models of industrial equipment, robots, conveyors into these virtual spaces and program them online. While the equipment is working, a specialist is already programming its next actions in the digital twin. This reduces equipment changeover time and increases its useful life, which makes production efficient and lean,” - explained Aleksey Korablev.

Demonstration of a motion capture suit with sensors

In addition, the company is developing new technologies to improve working conditions. So, already now a motion capture suit with sensors is in demand and has shown its effectiveness in practice: in such a suit, all the actions of an employee are literally tracked down to his fingertips in the information program. Such monitoring of the workload on the employee subsequently makes it possible to improve his working conditions and, if possible, automate processes.

Oleg Makarov, a representative of the EFER Engineering Center, spoke about how fire robots are becoming an element of lean manufacturing and increasing safety in civil construction. Diana Sergienko, a specialist in the technical support unit of the engineering safety systems department of the Polyplastic group, presented innovative solutions made from polymer materials that reduce risks at production sites and warehouse logistics areas.

Evgeny Korolev speaking

The conference continued at SPbGASU. Welcoming the audience, Vice-Rector for Research of our university Evgeny Korolev noted that more than half of the conference participants were students. And this is a good reason to say that science is greeting young people, whose scientific research will become significant for the industry.

Director of the Department of Water Supply, Sewage and Hydraulic Modeling of the State Unitary Enterprise “Vodokanal of St Petersburg” Irina Kovzharovskaya said that effective solutions for resource saving are coming to engineering systems and urban services. Thus, in the Southern zone of St Petersburg, an automated water supply management system has been introduced, which will allow the utility company to increase the accuracy of calculations of water flow and loss, and conduct comprehensive monitoring and analysis of the condition of control and measuring instruments.

Technical Director of Hortek-Project LLC Ivan Popov recalled that in the field of heat supply they also adhere to a lean approach.

– Distributed energy solves three problems: comfort, energy efficiency, and safety. Energy-efficient solutions for distributed heat supply sources have long proven their feasibility. However, our systems operate on imported equipment, the supply of which may cease at any time. Having studied foreign technologies, we could produce our own equipment, but where can we find specialist developers for this, even taking into account high wages? And this problem has emerged throughout the engineering industry. It is necessary to work out the issue of their training together with universities,” Ivan Popov is convinced.

The issue of expanding digital competencies and digitalization of production was also raised by the head of the monitoring and control service for information models of Etalon Tech LLC, Vladimir Sharmanov. The company uses information modeling technologies to ensure safe working conditions during the construction phase and provides educational institutions with the opportunity to work in this program for free.

By the way, SPbGASU is studying such digital developments. Thus, senior lecturer at the Department of Technosphere Safety Galina Nam told us about the effectiveness of using TIM technologies in the labor safety monitoring system at a construction site.

Director of the Natural Science Institute of the Far Eastern State Transport University Midhat Akhtyamov drew the attention of participants to environmental safety issues that need to be addressed when performing engineering tasks.

The conference continued its work in the format of specialized sections.