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Protective’s patented Go Up Safely™ (GUS™) system, is comprised of one or more wireless electrical field (E-Field) sensors coupled to a Base Controller.
The system is designed to detect the proximity of energised overhead AC 50Hz or 60Hz electrical transmission lines in order to prevent inadvertent contact with hazardous and potentially lethal voltages.
GUS™ was created to prevent machinery from contacting energised overhead high- voltage transmission lines (ie. power lines) when a hazardous situation is detected. This is achieved by stopping the machine in the current direction of movement, and only allowing movement away from the hazard until it is cleared.
Karl grew up on a large sheep station in New South Wales and growing up in the middle of nowhere provides a mentality that if an issue surfaces, you have to think outside the box to provide a solution.
“If there is a problem, you have to make something to fix it. You have to think differently to city dwellers because there isn’t a Bunnings on every corner. My journey in the electrical industry has seen me spend two and a half years working in Tanzania in East Africa, where life is genuinely cheap, meaning safety isn’t highly regarded nor heavily invested in. I’ve also worked in the Occupational Health and Safety side of the industry where I chaired the safety committee for Western Power for a number of years.
“Dealing with the incidents and accidents on a weekly basis you tend to hear the same feedback ‘we’ll just create another rule,” or “we’ll just tell them they can’t do that,’ or ‘we’ll put another line in the switching program to remind them to do their job correctly.’
This attitude was frustrating to say the least. I could see the problem was the human interaction with power lines. Removing the hazard was totally impossible of course, but the very next step should be to create an engineered solution to remove the issues associated with the hazard,” said Karl.
In 2012, Karl sat at home thinking about how to prevent machines coming into contact with power lines.
“I concluded ‘the engineered solution is the only solution’ but what are the next steps?’ The answer was to design a product capable of sensing the power line and then to warn the operator that contact with the power line could be imminent. The solution needed to take control of the machine out of the operator’s hands by physically preventing the machine’s control system from hitting the power line. It took me nearly five years to develop the product. The company Protective Engineered Safety was created in 2017,” said Karl.
By 2018 Protective had a commercial product ready and attended the first Occupational Health and Safety Show in Melbourne, where it was extremely well- received.
“At that point we were one of only three companies in the entire venue exhibiting a real product that could help save somebody’s life. For me, it was a proud moment to take the vision I created five years earlier, have it physically in my hand and demonstrate to somebody that it really does work, and it will save lives.
“We embarked on the patenting exercise at the beginning, and we released 37 claims for the design of the GoUpSafely system, and in 57 countries, all 37 claims went through unchallenged, which our patent attorney said it was like winning the lotto and extremely hard to do but we knew that we had complete protection from that moment forward.
“With GoUpSafely version 1 we basically took it to industry saying, ‘all right, what else would you like it to do?’ We are now at Version 3 which is incredibly intelligent. We’ve been able to incorporate a secondary sensor into the system which prevents the end of machinery booms from hitting surfaces. That development occurred about two weeks ago, and I believe the system is currently being fitted to two cranes working on a major infrastructure project in Melbourne, Australia” said Karl.
The global statistics for powerline fatalities are worrying. In 2012, just under 1,800 people were killed globally from hitting power lines. In the last 12 months 4,732 people globally didn’t go home as a result of hitting power lines.
“These stats alone tell me that the paperwork solutions are not working. We need to get the word out there, we need to help people understand that there is a practicable and viable solution available and it’s not expensive, it will literally cost less than the replacement of a couple of tyres on the machine,” said Karl.
“As far as retro fitting, it takes less than an hour to install. It’s predominantly wireless, making it very simple and the operational lifespan is in excess of 10 years. It’s been tested thoroughly by Cargotec in Sweden for HIAB Cranes. They have put it through their full military spec testing regime, which they weren’t expecting GUS to pass, but it did. We’ve been working with Cargotec since 2018, and although they are a slow moving wheel, they are methodical in their process and will not accept anything short of excellence, which is why we believe it’s been a worthwhile endeavour.
“In October of last year, we were pleased to see the European Union (EU) has given notice via the EU Machinery Regulation that as of 2026 you are no longer allowed to have a machine operating near power lines on any work site in EU countries without power line detection, so it’s starting to happen at the legislative level as well,” said Karl.
“Our system has just been approved for Freeport Mining Ventures in Indonesia. They recently completed an eight-month trial on a group of systems that we had on their large capacity all-terrain cranes, and they’ve just approved a purchase for another 28 systems. They also plan to fit the system to their large container handling forklifts,” he said.
Go Up SafelyTM (GUSTM) system,
is designed to detect the proximity of
energised overhead AC 50Hz or 60Hz electrical transmission lines in order to prevent inadvertent contact with hazardous and potentially lethal voltages.
A key feature of the GoUpSafely system is that it can be fitted to any machine that can reach a power line, from farm machinery through to construction equipment including telehandlers.
Karl recently showcased the GoUpSafely systems at the Crane Association of New Zealand’s (CANZ) Conference and Exhibition. This exhibition was a significant opportunity to demonstrate the system’s capabilities to a specialised audience in the industry.
“We exhibited at the CANZ show in Rotorua and a gentleman walked onto our stand and said he’d actually hit a high voltage power line two weeks earlier. He owns and operates a multitude of construction equipment, including a drill rig.
“During the discussion he said he’d come into contact with a power line with the drill rig and the only reason nobody was injured was because he actually managed to pull the entire power line down, which inadvertently shut it down.
“In a momentary lapse of concentration, he glanced at one of his operators as it looked like they were about to tip the excavator over. He was talking on the radio, not concentrating on his machine and lifting the drill rig as he was setting up and didn’t take his hand off the lever and hit the power line. He was grateful that he survived, and no one was hurt.
“He asked, ‘How much is the two sensor system?’ and I said, ‘around $4,500’. He said, ‘that mistake cost nearly $30,000,” said Karl.
Karl goes on to discuss the system specifically designed for cranes and in particular pick and carry cranes.
“Our solution for cranes runs the standard high-voltage detection sensors but we have also now included an optional second product called Protective Shield. We originally designed this for the Elevated Work Platform industry as secondary guarding against crush injuries when operating scissor lifts and boom lifts.” said Karl.
“We were approached by a Tier One builder that was finding pick and carry operators were banging the booms into tunnel roofs and poking them through buildings. I consulted with our engineering team about the potential to use Shield’s ability to detect proximity to physical object with GUS and within two weeks I shipped them the finished product.
“This is exciting because there are a significant number of cranes working closely to existing infrastructure like mini crawlers in the industry. It’s a brand new development which we see being a genuine ‘game changer’” said Karl.