Next time the service crew come to fix your drains or power lines, they may use a satellite.

Technology employed to navigate nuclear submarines will soon be hard at work in your own backyard - literally - if an experiment by CSIRO and ACTEW (the ACT Electricity and Water) fulfils its promise.

Project Mobile Maps will help power and water crews to get the job done more quickly, reliably and safely.

Portable units enable field crews to log in to home base for the latest and most accurate information on the area they are working in - information which, till now, was only readily accessible by returning to the depot.

"This will mean crews can be assigned to new jobs while still in the field, without having to come back for the paperwork," says ACTEW's Manager, IT Development, Mr John Stephenson.

"They will also be able to update the network maps in the field and file the changes back to base. This will improve our efficiency and customer service."

The Mobile Map combines several modern information technologies, including the global positioning satellite (GPS) system.

When a crew arrives at a new job, they log in using a laptop computer in their truck, check for recent changes to the power or water network, and download this information.

A GPS receiver in the laptop allows the system to report to base exactly where they are so that specific information for the area they are in can be transmitted to the site. When the job is completed, the crew update the network plans and update the changes on the corporate system.

Providing field crews with instant access to information stored in the corporate databases has been recognised by many Australian and overseas utilities as the way of the future.

"We will be able to use a combination of existing experience, research skills and databases to build on. ACTEW already has the basic information systems for Mobile Maps," said Mr Stephenson. "Our collaboration with CSIRO will provide the solutions to the technology gaps. As well, we have access to the ACT government's collection of spatial databases for roads, properties and so on."

CSIRO brings to the project its experience in and knowledge of spatial information systems, developed over the last 10 years through strategic research and extensive collaboration with industry and government.

Key elements of Mobile Map are spatial databases, mapped data delivery through the Internet, and systems for innovative applications.

Ross Ackland from CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences says that the system is enabled by combining existing databases, GPS and mobile data communications.

"The remarkable thing about this project is the systems integration, getting all the elements to work together, solving the 'whole systems' problem," Mr Ackland says.

Mobile Maps follows a project with the ACT Department of Urban Services in which CSIRO and the ACT Land Information Centre successfully trialed Intranet access to the ACT's spatial information infrastructure databases for properties, roads, land and other uses.

The trial will run for 12 months. If it is a success it may be adopted in the ACT and ACTEW will be able to market its expertise to other utilities in Australia and in Asia.

Mobile Maps has been supported by the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Tourism through its Online Technologies Program.

More information:
Ross Ackland CSIRO 02 6216 7044 (w), 02 6238 3243 (h)
John Stephenson ACTEW 02 6248 3492