ITMI20120717A1 - INTEGRATED HEALTH AND SAFETY TUTOR IN THE YARDS. - Google Patents

Description

Annex 2 - Description

This invention intends to fill a gap: in fact, despite an exuberant ICT market, there are no devices with the integrated performances set out in the § Summary. But there are systems that perform only some of the functions, that is, they perform them discontinuously, and in particular do not have the characteristics of the central element of our system, namely the "brace wearing them".

This has characteristics only apparently similar to those of some commercial products so-called personal digitai assistant (PDA) but with respect to these it is specialized, both for the specific functions described above, and for the robust and reliable construction. This does not mean a “coated” PDA, but a product designed and built from scratch starting, if necessary, from the individual components.

The state of the art

Strangely, in an apparently effervescent market, so far no such device has been proposed.

Even the research for the purposes of classification did not lead to a precise correspondence: the most appropriate class could be the E04G21 / 32, which, however, for the current content, seems to relate rather to generic passive protective devices (individual or collective).

The use of RFID for security purposes, and in particular RFID incorporated in PPE, is certainly not new: see for example http://www.discoverrfid.org/home.html. There are also some systems proposed by operators in the sector:

• ID3S (website http://www.id3s.com/home.aspxi specializes in rugged RFIDs, suitable for aggressive environments, in particular for PPE such as helmets and self-contained breathing apparatus for Fire Brigade, as well as in the respective readers;

• Capital Safety f http: // www. happened to safetv. com / ì uses RF1D for fall arrest harnesses;

• an author (http: // www. Ngoi 1 gas. Com / arti cl e / ΈΙ ectroni c- safety- supervi si on-sy stem / ì proposed an Electronic Safety Supervision System (ESSS) for professionals in the oil & gas sector, which however seems limited to monitoring the connection of this to the cable or safety line installed on the pylons of the wells: it is therefore not our wearable brace, which follows the operator in his movements;

• SAW S.r.l. of Milan (website http: // www. safeatwork. it / ì specializes in a proximity RFID reader (1-2 cm) which can consist of a so-called applet on a smartphone, subject of the international patent application WO2010 / 145868A1 following a similar national application MI2009 / A001094. These precedents, on the one hand, lack the characteristics of continuity of coverage over time, ubiquity, integration, reporting in real time, redundancy and reliability of data, which are distinctive of our system they constitute the claims) on the other hand, however, they are useful for developing the market, in particular the offer of PPE with RFID incorporated.We can therefore legitimately claim certain distinctive characteristics of the idea described here.

The problem

The proposed system intends to respond to various needs, not so much of an economic nature, but above all of compliance with the law. We refer here to the Italian law, which in principle is at the forefront, and certainly deserves technological tools to support its full application, the translation into the regulatory context of other countries (industrialized or developing countries) is quite obvious [this point may be better developed, with the regulatory references of the case, in the eventual application for extension of the same patent application in a European or international context].

It should also be noted that recently INAIL, with significant discounts on insurance premiums, encourages companies to behave virtuously and to continually improve (technical, organizational, etc.) health and safety conditions in the workplace, so that they go beyond simple compliance with legal obligations: the system proposed here also corresponds to this purpose.

As anticipated, the main rules are:

• Law 248/2006 (so-called "Bersani decree") on the identification of employees;

• Legislative Decree 81/08 and subsequent amendments, in particular (but not only) Title IV "Construction sites" which incorporates the Legislative Decree 494/96, on health and safety on construction sites;

• rules governing the specific areas mentioned in Art. 3 of the Legislative Decree. 81/08. The ultimate goal of improving health and safety requires a complex of direct and indirect actions.

A direct action is, for example, urging each employee to wear the prescribed PPE; an indirect one is to report the non-compliance, so that the person in charge is certainly aware of it; and that the supervisory authorities have evidence of all this to recall, and in the event of recidivism, sanction both one and the other.

An even more effective deterrent, albeit also indirect, is the "black box" which indelibly records all the circumstances of an injury, and removes any alibi from those responsible. A more indirect action is the collection of statistical data, useful for training and prevention purposes. Even more indirect is the fight against the exploitation of undeclared work, "illegal hiring", tax and social security (and salary) evasion, money laundering of illicit origin, fictitious subcontracting chains ("Chinese boxes"), competition unfair on the part of outlawed companies against virtuous ones, etc .: all behaviors that in addition to integrating crimes in themselves, always go hand in hand with a lack of attention to "health and safety".

Furthermore, inspections on construction sites, which are scattered in large numbers and everywhere in the territory, require the Authorities in charge, given the available resources, a large logistical effort, which the system proposed here intends to alleviate, in order to allow more targeted inspections and effective. For what has been said, in order to ensure compliance with the rules, as well as to better guarantee the rights of workers, the proposed system has the following main features:

1. identification of workers, associated with work / rest and entry / exit shifts, and the assignment of PPE as well as tools or materials or machinery or vehicles that are potentially dangerous or require special training;

2. location of workers, and real-time detection of the total workforce present on site (this also to ensure, in the event of a general alarm, eg fire, complete evacuation or, otherwise, targeted rescue only to employees remained in place);

3. monitoring that each employee constantly wears the prescribed PPE;

4. monitoring of the posture of each employee, with inertial and gravity sensors, suitable for detecting the fall;

5. monitoring of environmental conditions around each employee;

6. monitoring of the (psycho) physical conditions of each employee, especially in particularly demanding work (also due to PPE) or in aggressive environments: with pre-alarm (warning) in case of excessive stress or in any case such as to compromise health and / or safety (eg excessive noise can cause balance disturbances); 7. automatic alarm in the event of an accident, insofar as it can be detected by means of simple sensors that can be worn by each employee;

8. coordination of operations, in particular to avoid potentially dangerous interference, between employees also of different companies (prime contractor, subcontractors, etc.) involved in different and simultaneous operations, by the site foreman, both directly and through the team leaders of the individual companies [the organizational details are the responsibility of the Operational Safety and Coordination Plans (POS / PSC) to be defined on a case-by-case basis] and this thanks to reliable and secure communication, even with employees of different mother tongue, and if necessary in writing, able to trace the responsibilities in undertaking particularly dangerous operations (for example when it is necessary to exclude a level of protection, or in any case to derogate from basic good rules) and to prevent that, in the absence of evidence, the fault always falls on the last link (so-called "human error "); 9. wireless transmission of data, to the workstations in the command line of the company, and with direct access by the inspectors of ASL, DPL, INAIL etc., which in the current conditions encounter difficulties in site inspections, both for the excessive number of construction sites in the area, both due to the resistance (sometimes even physical) opposed by employers and foremen who have something to hide;

10. inviolable ("tamper-proof") and redundant custody of records relating to all circumstances of accidents, including those avoided ("near-misses"), however relevant for statistical, training and prevention purposes.

The solution

The solution, partly already anticipated, is described in the attached block diagram, and includes four types of devices (represented by square boxes, numbered in the order) that connect with existing systems (represented by rounds):

1. the "brace" wearable by each employee, built specifically for use in the given environment, and equipped with physical sensors;

2. wireless signal repeaters, and pseudolites, that is small local "radio beacons" that (re) broadcast a complementary localization signal in the construction site, but similar to that of the GPS satellite system: their number will depend on the complexity of the site and the obstructions to propagation direct electromagnetic waves;

3. one or more fixed or mobile workstations for the foreman, person in charge, etc., which, however, being located on the site must be suitable for the environment;

4. the workstations for the supervisory authorities, which are not necessarily robust in themselves, and therefore potentially simple portable tablets connected wirelessly and equipped with an appropriate data management software application, which is also part of the proposed system.

The "smart guardian"

General characteristics: reduced mass «1 kg; watertight casing (IPxy to be defined) and shockproof (withstands falls from a height to be determined without damage, loss of data, or interruption of operation); with rounded edges and straps to wear it comfortably; electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) for use even in the vicinity of "noisy" electrical systems; suitable for use in explosive atmospheres (ATEX); inviolability of the data, both physical (encapsulation of the resin memory chips; closure of the casing with devices that cannot be removed except with special tools; etc.) and logical (access to the memory only with crypto credential keys reserved for the manufacturer and / or authorized laboratories, and only at the request of the Judiciary; data authentication; encryption of sensitive personal data, etc.) such that the only way to alter the data is the physical destruction of the entire guardian.

It goes without saying that the heart of the guardian is a microprocessor module (1.1).

The employee identification badge reader (1.2) will preferably be of the "proximity" type with no contacts or openings likely to let water or dust penetrate.

The localization (1.3) can use both the direct signal from the GPS satellite (completed by the EGNOS signal for greater integrity) and / or from the Galileo satellite, and the signal reproduced by the pseudolites, which being similar (L band, modulation, code,. ..) is compatible with the same receiver hardware.

The RFID "interrogator" (1.4) is now a normal device, but must meet two requirements: (i) range of the order of 1 meter, this being the typical distance between the brace and the PPE worn; (ii) collision management, both between multiple PPE / RF1D within the reach of the same guardian (tag collisions), and between several guardians within the reach of the same PPE / RFID (reader collisions). with collision detection 'avoidance algorithms, such as ALOHA type: all this falls within the existing state of the art. Obviously, when we say that the guardian detects the presence of PPE "continuously", we mean that it detects them with a high frequency compared to the frequency with which the employee passes from the work shift to the break, or from one process to another: for example once a minute; a much higher frequency would only involve an unnecessary waste of energy.

The operator interface (1.5) will be ergonomic, suitable for non-specialists; keyboard suitable for use with work gloves; large display, and self-adaptive to the ambient light level; self-adaptive audio to the ambient noise level.

The inertial and gravity vector sensors (1.6) can certainly be incorporated in the brace: similar to those incorporated in smartphones or tablets, solid state and highly miniaturized, they do not necessarily have to provide high precision, but high reliability or better "integrity" ”Of the data, having to give the alarm if, and only if, a certain acceleration envelope is exceeded. The "worn" environmental and biophysical sensors (1.7) can be connected wirelessly, by means of built-in RFID-type devices, with the advantage of greater ease of use and of not having contacts susceptible to getting dirty, but the disadvantage of a greater waste of power. The same applies to environmental sensors (1.8) necessarily exposed to the external environment. The purpose of environmental sensors is certainly not an accurate measurement, which would require instruments with very different characteristics, carefully calibrated and installed, but only the detection of excesses so significant compared to the levels considered "normal", as to jeopardize health or safety. The wireless transponder (1.9) that connects the brace, possibly through the beacons, to the workstations, must be compatible with an environment full of obstacles as opaque as they reflect electromagnetic waves, which requires a "diversity" of frequency and polarization: and it will be optimized for ranges of a few hundred meters. Furthermore, it will be agreed that the radio frequency part falls within the scope of an open license (blanket license) that allows the use of an unlimited number of devices without authorization formalities or fees of any kind. For these reasons, the choice is restricted to IEEE-802.11 -b or -g (so-called Wifi) in the 2.4 GHz band, taken as a basic solution; with the so-called ZigBee as an alternative.

The GSM connection (1.10) is self-explanatory: it should be noted, however, that the system relies on the GSM network only to the extent that this is available, but not in an essential way.

The satellite transponder (1.11), due to its cost and consumption, is an option to be used precisely where there is no connection with the terrestrial network or does not provide adequate guarantees. Battery power supply (1.12) with contactless inductive charging, sufficient for an entire work shift of uninterrupted operation (»8 h).

The characteristics described above, of the individual functional blocks, taken individually, fall within the pre-existing state of the art; but combined together (not necessarily all together) they constitute a substantial innovation.

The pseudolites

In this context, we use the term pseudolite in a rather broad meaning, both as a signal generator similar to the satellite one, and more generally, as signal sources suitable for localization on short distances in environments characterized by obstacles, including metallic ones. The pseudoìites will typically be installed in locations appropriately chosen based on an initial site survey and will remain fixed for the entire duration of the works.

The workstation of the person in charge

In this context, we use the term "supervisor" in a rather broad meaning, which includes the various figures in the hierarchical line: foreman, site manager, construction manager, manager, safety coordinator, RSPP, RLS, owner (employer) of the single company, competent doctor. The workstation will provide comprehensive information on the construction site, with the possibility of selective or restrictive access depending on the access credentials: for example, in the event of an employee becoming ill, the person in charge will receive a general alarm, but only the competent doctor will access the detail. In particular, it will be possible to "see" the individual workers, in a 2D / 3D representation of the construction site based on architectural drawings, excavation plans, scaffolding etc., however already available.

The supervisor's workstation will also be robust, although not to the same extent as the guardian; and will have its own inviolable memory device, deliberately redundant with respect to the one already present in the guardian.

The inspector's workplace

As already mentioned, this device can consist of a commercial tablet-PC, equipped with specific application software, and in particular a database, taken from the guardians and / or from the positions of the proposed with two access modes: (i) from the headquarters of the Body, through the web, to build an overall picture of all construction sites in the area, and plan inspections; (ii) near a construction site, by connecting directly via WiFi, even without physically accessing the interior and without the need for collaboration from the employees or supervisors. Benefits

The advantages already extensively illustrated can be summarized as follows:

<•> solicitation to adapt and comply with safety regulations, <•> therefore, in the medium to long term, a desirable reduction in the incidence and severity of accidents,

• reduction of the cost of keeping records for assigning IPRs, for virtuous companies that already keep them regularly by hand, thanks to automatic keeping;

• discount on first insurance policies (INAIL) for virtuous companies,

• greater speed and objectivity in resolving disputes, judicial or extrajudicial settlement of compensation, etc.,

• reduction of costs and times, and better planning of resources, for inspection bodies, • reduction of stress for inspectors who, in order to physically access certain construction sites, have to face resistance, sometimes even physical, on the part of outlawed companies, intervention in the event of an accident,

• greater guarantee of rapid and total evacuation in the event of a general alarm, with less risk for the rescue teams,

• traceability of risk situations, even if thwarted, for statistical and preventive purposes, • impossibility of concealing or falsifying the circumstances of an injury, or diverting the attention of the inspectors,

• mitigation of co-responsibility, including criminal, attributed by law to the client, for breaches by the contractor in matters of safety,

• better traceability of responsibilities for safety, in the case of the coexistence of several companies (subcontracting chains) and mitigation of the risk of interference.

Industrial feasibility

The realization of the apparatus, including design, development (including software), approval and mass production, does not present particular technological or other difficulties, and is also within the reach of SMEs that have interdisciplinary skills in the various sectors (digital, analog, RF, Information security, ...).

Marketing also does not present particular difficulties as the product is intended for professional operators ("B2B"): as already mentioned, a promotional and affirmation vehicle, although obviously indirect, can be the incentive policy of INAIL towards companies that adopt systems aimed at improving the protection of health and safety at work.

Finally, since it is a highly reliable apparatus, the development and production plan must be accompanied by a credible Operalions and Maintenance plan, as well as a RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safèty) plan also to ensure the "permanence" of the product. over time despite the trend towards rapid obsolescence of certain components, especially digital ones (including software).

It goes without saying that, since the apparatus must be welcomed by the various entities involved, the social partners (associations of construction companies and trade unions, both directly and through the joint bodies between these already established) and the Institutions will be consulted in the definition of detail. (ASL, DPL, INAIL, Judiciary, professional associations, etc.).

Claims (1)

Annex 3 - Claims 1. an electronic device, consisting of a wearable brace, which acquires and reports, by means of wireless connections, the essential data on the health and safety of each employee, anywhere and practically continuously during the work shift; 2. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with an identification badge reader; 3. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with a satellite navigation signal receiver, and auxiliary signals emitted by pseudolites, for its localization; 4. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with a wireless interrogator that detects the presence of the prescribed PPE, by means of the RFID devices incorporated therein; 5. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with an interactive man-machine interface and for the exchange of messages in voice or in writing; 6. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with inertial and gravity sensors, with which it detects the posture and any loss of balance and fall of the employee; 7. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with wearable sensors of the main physiological quantities (temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, pressure, ...), therefore necessarily external, with which it detects the state of health and stress of the 'clerk; 8. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with environmental sensors, including external ones; 9. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with various wireless interfaces (eg WiFi, GSM and / or satellite) to ensure connection even in non-infrastructured locations; 10. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with a memory protected with physical and / or logical measures (tamper-proof) designed to guarantee the integrity, inviolability and authenticity of the data, also for insurance and forensics; 11. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, equipped with appropriate algorithms which, based on the overall health and safety situation detected, automatically launch a pre-alarm in the event of danger, or an alarm in the event of an accident; 12. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, together with fixed repeaters (beacons and pseudolites), designed to ensure localization and connection even in the presence of obstacles, reflections and multiple paths of RF signals; 13. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, together with a workstation for the person in charge in the command line, which wirelessly collects data, allows to exchange messages in voice and in writing, allows a synoptic view of the entire construction site , and records everything in his own inviolable memory; 14. the apparatus referred to in Claim 1, together with a workstation for the Inspection Authorities, equipped with special software, which collects data both via the web in its offices and through wireless connections near the workplace.