Jonathan Guest, the founder of Cheshire-based Safety Shield Global, has spoken of his ‘unforgettable honour’ in meeting His Majesty, King Charles III at a special reception for winners of this year’s prestigious King’s Awards.

The event at Windsor Castle in London was hosted by the King and attended by business leaders from around the country who had been recognised for their innovation and excellence.

Considered to be the highest commercial accolade possible for any UK business, the King’s Award was presented to Safety Shield Global for its ground-breaking work in developing an Artificial Intelligence safety system for plant machinery.

Jonathan Guest came up with the idea of improving construction site safety after one of his close friends was tragically killed in a collision with an excavator. He spent more than a decade honing and developing technology which had initially been utilised for collision avoidance in the automotive industry.

Speaking of his meeting with King Charles III, Jonathan comments:

“Meeting King Charles at Windsor Castle was an unforgettable honour. His remarkable ability to connect with people was testament to his commitment to fostering enterprise and innovation."

“Windsor Castle provided a majestic backdrop for the reception and shaking hands with King Charles and discussing how Safety Shield is leading the way in construction site safety and innovation and the reasons for winning the Kings Award was a surreal experience that I will cherish forever."

“I am deeply honoured and humbled that Safety Shield Global have been awarded with The King’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation. This award represents recognition of the resolution, vigour, and dedication of our team.”

The most advanced AI ‘human form recognition device’ available on the market, Safety Shield’s award-winning system was designed to cut the risk of serious injury on busy construction sites and places of work where heavy plant are operational.

Providing a world-class level of protection for contractors in the most demanding of safety-focussed environments, Safety Shield gives operators a full 360-degree ‘window’ to ensure workforce safety.

Using AI to identify people who are in the danger zone, the system is trained to filter out all other objects and only detects the human form, acting as a third eye for the operator and sounding an alert if a collision is imminent.

The system can be fitted to any type of plant, for industries such as construction, rail, mining, demolition and waste, amongst others.

Manufactured in the UK, the device which can also be retrofitted to any plant or machinery and has achieved AI accuracy at 99.6% via independent test bodies in the UK and Germany, achieving the gold standard of accuracy levels.

The King’s Award for Enterprise was renamed last year to reflect His Majesty, The King’s desire to continue the legacy of HM Queen Elizabeth II, by recognising outstanding UK businesses. The Award programme, now in its 58th year, allows successful businesses to use the esteemed King’s Awards Emblem for the next five years.