PWAS Proximity Warning Systems for Saudi Construction, Oil & Gas and Mining
About This Solution
A PWAS (Proximity Warning & Alert System) detects when a person or vehicle enters the danger zone around heavy machinery and warns the operator before contact happens. SNTech supplies AI camera, radar and UWB tag-based PWAS — ARAMCO-approved under GI-7.030 and NEOM-certified — from its base in Dhahran. On one Jubail Industrial City project, 45 machines fitted with SNTech PWAS ran 18 consecutive months with zero lost-time incidents.
Industries That Use This Solution
Complete Feature Set
- 1 AI camera PWAS in 4-, 6- and 8-camera configurations (8-camera with built-in driver monitoring)
- 2 Radar-Based Detection (up to 30m range, 360° coverage)
- 3 UWB Tag-Based Personnel Tracking
- 4 Combo Systems (Radar + AI + UWB Tag)
- 5 360° Camera & Radar Safety Systems for heavy vehicles
- 6 AI Dashcam Solutions (1CH, 2CH, 3CH configurations)
- 7 ARAMCO GI-7.030 & NEOM certification support
- 8 Real-time hazard alerts: vibration, audible & visual warnings
- 9 Black-box incident data recording & playback
- 10 Cloud HSE dashboard with real-time reporting
What is PWAS, and how is it different from a reversing sensor?
A reversing sensor tells a driver something is close behind. A PWAS watches the whole danger zone around a machine, tells a person apart from a parked vehicle or a stack of material, and triggers vibration, audible and visual warnings before a collision risk becomes urgent — logging every proximity event with a timestamp for the site's HSE record.
Saudi Aramco requires approved PWAS on heavy equipment under General Instruction GI-7.030, and contractors who can't show compliance are turned away at site gates. NEOM's supplier requirements carry a parallel expectation. SNTech's PWAS is ARAMCO-approved and NEOM-certified, and SNTech's technical team prepares the full GI-7.030 submission package — detection-zone documentation, calibration certificates and event-logging evidence — so certification doesn't hold up the project. Read what GI-7.030 requires in detail.
Real-world result: 18 months with zero lost-time incidents
An ARAMCO-approved EPC contractor on a major expansion project in Jubail Industrial City had recorded three pedestrian–vehicle near-misses in six months. SNTech fitted all 45 pieces of heavy equipment with a hybrid system — AI cameras on every machine, radar for blind-spot coverage, and UWB tags for more than 200 site personnel — reporting to the project HSE manager through SNTech's cloud platform.
Over the following 18 months the site recorded zero lost-time incidents, with 99.97% PWAS system uptime, an average of 47 automatic proximity alerts a month, and GI-7.030 compliance verified.
"SNTech's PWAS solution is the most comprehensive proximity warning system we have evaluated. Their ARAMCO certification support meant zero delays to our project timeline, and the AI detection accuracy exceeded our HSE specifications." — Eng. Faisal Al-Rasheed, HSE Director, Major EPC Contractor, Jubail Industrial City
SNTech's goal on every deployment is zero incidents — stated as a target, not a guarantee. No vendor can promise zero incidents; what a PWAS can deliver is detection and warning fast enough to make zero achievable.
AI camera vs radar vs UWB tag vs combined PWAS: which fits your site?
GI-7.030 sets the requirement but does not mandate a single detection method, and SNTech supplies all of them — so the honest answer depends on the machine and the site, not on which technology we prefer:
| AI camera | Radar | UWB tag | Combined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it detects | Cameras with an edge AI processor classify people, vehicles and objects | 77 GHz radar senses anything in the zone, independent of light | Workers wear a tag; machines carry an anchor | Radar for range, AI vision for classification, UWB tags for identity |
| Strongest at | Telling a person apart from an object | Dust, darkness and glare; ranges up to 30 m | Locating a specific worker, including indoors and underground | Removing ghost alerts; one event record of who, when and how far |
| Watch out for | Less reliable in dust storms or direct low-angle sun | Does not classify what it detects, so alone it can alert on non-hazards | Protects only people wearing a tag — visitors and untagged workers are invisible to it | The most hardware to install and maintain |
| Configurations | 4-, 6- and 8-camera systems; the 8-camera adds built-in driver monitoring (DMS) | 180° front-facing unit for excavators and bulldozers; 360° four-radar perimeter for large cranes and port equipment | Vest-clip tags with a 12-month battery; machine-mounted anchors | Radar, AI vision and UWB on one on-device fusion engine |
| Typical use | Around active pedestrian walkways | The baseline on most Aramco and NEOM sites; haul trucks in mining | Confined spaces, underground work, blast-zone accountability | Sites that need legally admissible incident data |
In practice, most Aramco and NEOM sites specify radar as the baseline, add AI vision where classification matters most, and add UWB tags for confined or underground work. Getting the mix wrong is the most common reason a PWAS deployment fails its first compliance audit: a camera-only system on equipment that regularly works in dust leaves exactly the missed-detection gap GI-7.030's quarterly verification is designed to catch. See every PWAS model and its specifications.
How each sector uses PWAS
Construction
Pedestrian–vehicle collision prevention around active machinery. Paired with crane LMI and GPS fleet tracking, SNTech's construction clients report up to 40% fewer site incidents. Construction sector →
Oil & gas
ARAMCO GI-7.030-approved PWAS — the baseline for operating on active ARAMCO sites — alongside hazardous-area monitoring and permit-to-work integration. Oil & gas sector →
Mining
Radar on haul trucks covers blind spots that mirrors and cameras miss, while UWB tags track underground personnel for blast-zone evacuation and shift accountability. SNTech's mining deployments have measured a 50% reduction in near-miss incidents. Mining sector →
Ports & terminals
Proximity sensors on reach stackers and RTG cranes warn when a worker or vehicle enters the swing radius or a blind spot. SNTech's port clients report a 45% reduction in cargo-handling incidents. Ports sector →
Frequently Asked Questions
How does PWAS prevent collisions on construction sites?
PWAS detects when people or vehicles enter a danger zone around heavy machinery and immediately triggers vibration, audible and visual warnings before contact occurs. SNTech's PWAS is ARAMCO GI-7.030 approved; on one Jubail Industrial City project, 45 machines fitted with it ran 18 consecutive months with zero lost-time incidents.
Is SNTech's PWAS approved by ARAMCO?
Yes. SNTech's PWAS is ARAMCO-approved under GI-7.030, the General Instruction that requires approved proximity warning systems on heavy equipment at Aramco facilities, and SNTech prepares the full GI-7.030 submission package for clients. GI-2.100 is a separate Aramco instruction covering journey management for land transport, so contractors typically need to show compliance with both.
Does PWAS work in dust storms or at night?
Radar-based PWAS does: it does not depend on visible light, so it works the same in darkness, dust and glare. AI camera systems are the most precise at telling people from objects but, like any camera, are less reliable in dust storms or direct low-angle sun — which is why many sites pair cameras with radar.
Do workers need to wear anything?
Only with UWB tag-based PWAS, where each worker wears a vest-clip tag with a 12-month battery. AI camera and radar systems detect people without any wearable. Because a tag system only protects tagged people, visitors and untagged workers still need camera or radar coverage.
Is this the same as the "AI PWAS" other suppliers advertise?
It is the same category of technology. What differs is that SNTech's PWAS is already ARAMCO-approved and NEOM-certified, and that SNTech supplies every detection method — AI camera systems in 4-, 6- and 8-camera configurations, radar, UWB tags and combined systems — so the choice can match the site rather than one fixed sensor type.
What does a GI-7.030 compliance audit check?
Aramco's quarterly third-party verification checks that every detection zone is correctly calibrated for the equipment it is mounted on, that proximity events are logged with accurate GPS and timestamp data, and that operators can produce alert history on demand. Dust, vibration and equipment modifications can drift a detection zone over months, so a pre-audit calibration pass is worth scheduling.
See how 45 machines ran 18 months with zero lost-time incidents
Book a site assessment with SNTech's Dhahran team. We'll recommend the detection mix for your equipment and prepare your GI-7.030 submission.
Book a PWAS Site Assessment →