Public Suwa University of Science Spin-off 'Canal Water Co., Ltd.' Announces New Model of 'Canal Pilot', a Heatstroke Risk Management Device Using Sweat Measurement - Responding to Mandatory Heatstroke Prevention at Construction and Manufacturing Sites

To whom it may concern April 6, 2026
Canal Water Co., Ltd.

Canal Water Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chino City, Nagano Prefecture, President & CEO: Tsukasa Kosuda, hereafter 'Canal Water'), which provides heatstroke risk management services for hot working environments, announces the introduction of a new model for 2026 of its heatstroke prevention device 'Canal Pilot', aimed at construction and manufacturing sites.

[Mandatory Heatstroke Countermeasures]
Against the backdrop of rising temperatures in recent years, businesses are required to strengthen their heatstroke countermeasures. Starting in June 2025, implementing heatstroke countermeasures for work under certain conditions became a legal obligation for businesses, and a system applying penalties for violations was introduced.

As a result, for companies with worksites posing heatstroke risks, establishing a system to detect initial symptoms early and prevent severe cases has become more important than ever.

With the mandate, each business location is required to establish response procedures to prevent the worsening of symptoms, such as communication protocols when a worker is suspected of heatstroke, removal from work, cooling the body, and medical examination by a doctor if necessary.

[Heatstroke Risk Management Service by Canal Pilot]
Canal Water, the first spin-off venture from the Public Suwa University of Science, has been developing the helmet-mounted sweat measurement device 'Canal Pilot' since 2021. Through repeated verification at actual work sites, it has advanced miniaturization, data accumulation, and know-how building.

In FY2024, it was selected for a grant from the Ichimura Kiyoshi Foundation, achieving significant miniaturization, preparing its equipment system, and officially launching its heatstroke risk management service.

Compared to conventional devices that measure body temperature or heart rate, Canal Pilot features the ability to detect heatstroke risk earlier by using sweat volume as an indicator. This enables early action before the onset of heatstroke. Furthermore, under the conditions subject to the mandate—environments with a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) of 28 or higher, or air temperatures of 31°C or higher, for continuous work of 1 hour or more, or work exceeding 4 hours a day—it detects risks and provides:
- Buzzer notification to the individual
- Lamp notification to surrounding people
- Email notification to pre-registered administrators
thereby supporting prompt response across the entire site.

In addition to the sweat sensor, this device has built-in heart rate and acceleration sensors, making it usable not only for heatstroke prevention but also as a workplace safety management tool.

[Previous Year's Track Record]
Canal Water started providing the heatstroke risk management service in FY2025, and it has been introduced at many hot worksites including construction, civil engineering, building material processing, casting, food processing, industrial waste disposal, and solar panel installation.
User companies have provided feedback such as:
- We can grasp the heatstroke risk for each worker.
- We were able to identify processes with high heatstroke risks.
- We could confirm the effectiveness after implementing countermeasures.
- We grasped high-risk workers and utilized the data for reassignment.
On the other hand, there were also opinions that 'the device is slightly large,' which we have been working to improve.