The world’s first artificially intelligent personal safety device has just launched its first batch of pre-orders, is this the future of accident detection for lone workers employing manufacturing services?
Tended Protect, combines a smartphone-connected device with advanced sensor technology and AI. The product tracks a user’s movements and automatically checks any abnormalities which might indicate an accident.
According to Labour Force Survey (LFS), 60,000 non-fatal injuries occur to workers each year in the manufacturing sector.
If this technology was introduced it could potentially reduce and minimise the impact of some of these incidents in service-based manufacturing, as engineers may need to journey offsite to do routine maintenance on their products.
Employing devices like these could also boost safety culture within companies, as it proves businesses are willing to invest in strategies to improve the safety of their employees when they are working more autonomously.
According to Tended Protect, only 6% of lone workers are protected with some type of lone worker alarm, this means that there are 6.8 million lone workers in Britain that go to work every day unprotected.
As manufacturing continues to use more service-based approaches, like for example servitized agricultural robots or ‘agribots’, if an engineer needs to visit and fix, or do routine maintenance on a robot provided as part of the manufacturer’s service, this device could ensure their safety at all times.
How the intelligent AI device works
The device combines four intelligent safety features that automatically detect if a user has been involved in an accident: a pre-set check in feature, fall and movement detector and SOS call function.
As it is difficult to predict when a human accident might occur, the AI product reacts immediately to when a user is involved in an accident, which could provide companies with a stronger safety strategy for their lone workers.
Tended Protect uses Bluetooth Low Energy technology to connect with a nearby smartphone. If the device believes the user is in trouble it will prompt them to check-in as safe, through a powerful vibration.
If a user fails to tap or use gesture control to acknowledge the safety check, this will result in emergency mode activation, alerting the wearer’s selected contacts. Contacts are then able to see the user’s GPS location, activity information, call the emergency services if needed, or request to speak to the user via their phone’s loudspeaker.
A user can also further set their profile to contain all their key medical data such as blood type, allergies, medical history. This information is then readily available to the emergency services.
For employees working in service-based manufacturing this could prove essential in minimising accidents and impacts when they are working autonomously, and could ensure their safety throughout maintenance work of products and off-site tasks, making the operation entirely smarter.
