Each day, countless workplace injuries and illnesses are prevented through the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Employers in the manufacturing, construction, and other sectors where hazards can threaten health and safety evaluate their operations to identify risks and develop PPE policies to minimize them. Measures these enterprises require can range from low-tech solutions such as hard hats, goggles, or gloves to more advanced equipment, such as respirators and biohazard suits.
The best-laid plans, however, can only be effective if people follow them. Employees can forget to use PPE, use it incorrectly, or, unfortunately, resist using it at all. Enforcing PPE policies have traditionally fallen to managers and supervisors who conduct visual inspections or react when they encounter noncompliance. Aside from the fact that reviewing PPE policy compliance takes time that managers and supervisors need for other tasks, it’s also not foolproof. It’s impossible to watch each employee continually in each circumstance requiring PPE. More importantly, monitoring for compliance with PPE policies is not just a matter of compliance with regulations and company policy. It can be a matter of life and death.
Artificial Intelligence’s Emerging Role in Worker Health and Safety
Systems leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) with real-time object detection through image and video analysis can automate PPE policy enforcement. These systems can spot employees on a manufacturing floor or construction site who aren’t using — or incorrectly using — PPE, making management of these vital company policies more efficient and consistent. Moreover, tech solutions for PPE policy enforcement provide operations with an innovative solution for audits; the data they collect can automatically generate reports.
Pervasive Technologies has developed an AI vision system that replaces traditional, manual PPE control processes with an automated alternative. The
Pervasive Heureka Industry AI vision solution employs ADLINK technology, combining advanced analytics with machine learning and image processing.
The solution runs on
ADLINK DLAP-201-JT2 for multiple cameras, with connection to the Google Cloud Platform for continuous monitoring and storage or integration with Network Optix Nx Meta VMP as an on-device VMS server. The choice of cloud or edge gives you the capability to customize the system to suit your operation’s needs. You can configure it to send alerts about PPE noncompliance to managers or to an edge system that could react with lightning speed to shut down systems to prevent unprotected worker exposure to hazards.
You can connect your existing cameras to Heureka, and the system, already trained and optimized for key use cases, monitors designated areas, recognizes PPE, and confirms whether employees are using it — and using it correctly. Operations often implement Heureka to monitor entrances and exits to areas where PPE is required, automatically enforcing safety policies. It is also a cost- and time-saving system for industrial access control and automated access systems.
Heureka is a win-win for industries required to comply with safety regulations, increasing productivity and compliance, and for their employees who benefit from tools that contribute to safer working conditions.
At ADLINK, we use our edge solution expertise to provide a diverse Edge AI portfolio including
AI-on-Modules,
development kits and
Edge AI platforms and servers. We’re driven to stay on the cutting edge so that our partners and customers can make solutions like Pervasive’s Heureka Industry AI Vision a reality.
Experience the Pervasive Heureka PPE Solution at Embedded World Fair
The ADLINK team is heading to the
Embedded World 2020 Exhibition and Conference 25-27 February at the NürnbergMesse exhibition venue in Nuremberg, Germany. We’re ready to showcase the Pervasive Heureka Industry AI Vision solution for PPE monitoring and demonstrate it, as well as an additional solution featuring the Neon-I camera and NVIDIA GPU, to event participants.
Visit our Booth #1-540 and get to know more about these innovative solutions and how ADLINK enables our partners to change the industrial solution landscape.