Worker 4.0 – Connected. Empowered. Safe and Healthy. The first intelligent and interoperable platform based on AI and wearable/IoT devices for real-time workers safety and health monitoring

Project Information

WearHealth

Grant agreement ID: 864149

DOI

10.3030/864149

Project closed

EC signature date 21 May 2019

Start date 1 May 2019

End date 31 August 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

WEARHEALTH UG (HAFTUNGSBESCHRANKT)
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WearHealth (Worker 4.0 – Connected. Empowered. Safe and Healthy. The first intelligent and interoperable platform based on AI and wearable/IoT devices for real-time workers safety and health monitoring)

Reporting period: 2019-05-01 to 2019-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Every year more than 3739 workers die due to occupational accidents and illnesses. In addition to lives lost, occupational safety and health represents a major economic burden in the EU with an estimated yearly cost of €10.5 billion. This problem has not been solved yet because companies and workers are unaware of safety and health risks and cannot identity the root risk factors on time.
WearHealth’s product is an intelligent an interoperable platform that helps solve this by analyzing physiological and contextual data from off-the-shelf IoT and wearable devices and providing actionable objective insights that help workers and managers understand safety and health risks in real time. By doing so, companies can better manage the risks of their workforce and, thus, prevent human, financial, reputational and productivity losses due to safety and health risks while engaging workers and improving operational efficiency.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In this project we have performed a feasibility study including the update of our business plan. We have verified the technical, market and financial feasibility of our solution within different market verticals.
In a survey with leaders and workers in diverse industries, we found out that 68% of workers would adopt wearables if there is added value for health and safety, and if data privacy is not compromised. Furthermore, 92 percent of operations managers are interested in testing wearable-driven technologies and they expect to double their operational efficiency when lone workers use wearables. Furthermore, health and safety managers want to manage the productivity of their workforce while reducing the risk of accidents due to heavy workloads. Our customers want to achieve this through anonymized analysis so that the data privacy rights of the workers are not compromised.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The intelligent technology, which is based on more than 10 years of research in AI in Germany, uses machine learning algorithms to analyze data from off-the-shelf devices such as smart watches, smart shirts and cameras; and provide real-time insights to better manage critical situations and proactively prevent accidents, incidents and absenteeism at work. With the data from those devices we can generate actionable insights to support maintenance, production and lone workers indoors and outdoors. Those insights include an AI-driven fall detection and alert system; real-time identification of human risk factors such as physical load and mental load; and objective monitoring of ergonomic risks at work.
The main innovation and value of those insights is that they empower workers and occupational safety and health (OHS) managers to better understand the hidden risk factors behind an occupational accident or illness, and thus, to prevent those hazards on time.

Product overview