Management and maintenance of sensor systems in closed enclosures requires strict adherence to safety protocols to avoid injury of the servicing technician when ingressing/egressing the enclosure. Particularly, in sanitation and waste water systems (i.e., sewer systems), the risks for injury have risen as more enclosures such as manholes are becoming retrofitted with automated systems for sewer “health” and “hazard” monitoring. These retrofitting/maintenance calls often require the technician to not only enter the enclosure (e.g., manhole) but also spend a significant amount of time at the bottom of the manhole. Once entry is required (whether for a sensored or unsensored manhole), a significant amount of safety equipment is necessitated to prevent a fall and/or injury of the technician, increasing the capital costs for these service events. Additionally, increasing insurance and compensation for resulting injuries have added to the escalation of costs, not to mention the loss of skilled manpower.
What would be desired in this and other related industries, is a method and/or system that obviates the need (or at least minimizes it) for a technician to enter into the enclosure while still accomplishing his service tasks. Such methods and systems are described in the following disclosure.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds