SafeWork: Workforce Location Management for Safe Automated Industries

The SafeWork project addresses the safety concerns in modern industrial environments, where automation and autonomization, including the collaboration between humans and robots, are increasingly prevalent. Work accidents remain a significant concern, with Eurostat reporting 2.7 million cases in the EU alone in 2020. These statistics underscore the urgency of implementing effective safety measures to protect workers' well-being.

Our motivation stems from the recognition of the inherent risks faced by workers in industrial settings and the imperative to minimize accidents and injuries through innovative positioning and tracking solutions.

Main objectives for the project

The primary objective of SafeWork is to develop a comprehensive workforce location management system that leverages emerging technologies such as 5G and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to enhance worker safety. To achieve this, we aim to:

• Develop precise positioning techniques for real-time monitoring of personnel and assets.
• Implement predictive movement analysis to anticipate potential hazards and prevent accidents.
• Establish a robust notification and warning system to alert workers and supervisors of impending dangers.

Our approach involves developing flexible solutions tailored to different industries' specific needs and resources, regardless of their size. By leveraging modular design principles and cloud-based technologies, the project aim to create a system that can easily scale up or down to accommodate varying levels of complexity and capacity requirements.

International cooperation 

The SafeWork project thrives on international cooperation, bringing together teams with specialized technical knowledge and experience from various universities. Specifically, the project involves collaboration between Mid Sweden University (MIUN), Poznan University of Technology (PUT), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VilniusTech), and Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech).

Each university brings unique expertise, from signal processing, connectivity, and remote sensing to wireless systems design and data fusion.