How can AI reduce fall injuries in the workplace?

Fall-caused injuries are common in all types of work environments, including offices. They are the main cause of absences longer than three days, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). However, data, data amount, data heterogeneity, and stringent processing time constraints continue to pose challenges to real-time fall detection. This work proposes a new approach based on a recurrent neural network (RNN) for Fall Detection and a Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) to estimate the time of impact of the fall. The approach is tested on SisFall, a dataset consisting of 2706 Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and 1798 falls recorded by three sensors. The results show that the proposed approach achieves an average TPR of 82.6% and TNR of 98.4% for fall sequences and 94.4% in ADL. Besides, the Root Mean Squared Error of the estimated time of impact is approximately 160ms.

How can AI reduce wrist injuries in the workplace?

This paper explores the development of a control and sensor strategy for an industrial wearable wrist exoskeleton by classifying and predicting workers' actions. The study evaluates the correlation between exerted force and effort intensity, along with sensor strategy optimization, for designing purposes. Using data from six healthy subjects in a manufacturing plant, this paper presents EMG-based models for wrist motion classification and force prediction. Wrist motion recognition is achieved through a pattern recognition algorithm developed with surface EMG data from an 8-channel EMG sensor (Myo Armband); while a force regression model uses wrist and hand force measurements from a commercial handheld dynamometer (Vernier GoDirect Hand Dynamometer). This control strategy forms the foundation for a streamlined exoskeleton architecture designed for industrial applications, focusing on simplicity, reduced costs, and minimal sensor use while ensuring reliable and effective assistance.

Ergonomic Assessment of Work Activities for an Industrial-oriented Wrist Exoskeleton

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are the most common cause of work-related injuries and lost production involving approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide and mainly affect low back (more than 50%) and upper limbs (more than 40%). It has a profound effect on both the workers affected and the company. This paper provides an ergonomic assessment of different work activities in a horse saddle-making company, involving 5 workers. This aim guides the design of a wrist exoskeleton to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal diseases wherever it is impossible to automate the production process. This evaluation is done either through subjective and objective measurement, respectively using questionnaires and by measurement of muscle activation with sEMG sensors.