The challenges the experiment wants to address concern the lack of security in the workplace and, consequently, the high number of injuries and deaths reported daily. Currently, it is still open the issue of how to best support a professional operator that must perform delicate tasks such as maintenance, inspections while moving within complex and dangerous contests such as construction sites, civil works, port terminals, etc.
The data on safety in the workplace dramatically include injuries and deaths not properly diffused among mass media. In fact, from 1 January to 1 May 2021 in Italy, more than one person died daily at work. A massacre that, in the course of 2021 affected already 120 people, according to Anmil, the National Association of Mutilated and Invalid Workers.
In a global industrial context there is an accident in the workplace every 15 seconds (Source ILO, International Labour Organization) with an impact on GDP of about 4% (Source Inail).
Digitization has a strong impact on society and employees, measured in the lives saved by increasing safety at work. In reality, digitization is not just about technology, but its transformative effect on employees and workplaces.
The experiment addresses the issue concerning safety of workers operating in highly dynamic environments such as, for example, construction sites and port terminals, exposed to risks of different nature and degree. The aim of the project is to experiment a solution in which the operator, equipped with wearable sensors and virtual reality tools and in continuous connection with a central processing system, can move within a working context in a more conscious and safer way. The experiment will increase the digitalization level of T&G through the integration of anthropocentric technologies based on AR/VR, IoT, AI in the solutions currently proposed by T&G to support workers operating in complex environments and provide them a higher safety at work.
Implementation Solution
The system will be defined through collecting and reviewing contributions of subcontractors to integrate anthropocentric technologies based on AR/VR, IoT, AI. A4S system and the specifications of the subsystems that compose it will be defined with the aim of integrating all the technological components involved in a single homogeneous and anthropocentric solution. The demonstrator will be realized at SIIT (partner of DIHL), comprehending these activities:
- AR Module: Development of the Pixel Perfect Mockup that allows to validate the graphic elements constituting the visual identity of the functional communication and the interactive prototype to be installed on the viewers (e.g. Microsoft Hololens)
- Sensors module: development of the “connected worker” kit of sensors and PPE integrated with the AR part
- Algorithms: development of algorithms for risk assessment and the calculation of alternative routes
- Development of the middleware and IT platform for system integration of the solution and communication with the outside world
- Integration of modules
The solution will then be tested in a real environment (LSCT - La Spezia Container Terminal) where professional operators perform delicate tasks such as maintenance, inspections while moving within complex and dangerous contests. Feedback from these operators will be important for the success and validation of the experiment, as well as for quality review.
Subjects involved
- T&G - Gruppo FOS (Partner - Project leader)
- Digital Innovation Hub Liguria (Partner)
- Cetena (Subcontractor)
- Iroi (Subcontractor)
- Smart Track (Subcontractor)
- Distretto SIIT (DIHL Partner)
