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Digitalization as a Driving Force for Occupational Safety
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Digitalization as a Driving Force for Occupational Safety

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Occupational Safety and Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 May 2023) | Viewed by 12212

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Marc Wittlich

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance, D-53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany
Interests: industry 4.0; digitalization; vision zero; UV radiation; skin cancer; electromagnetic fields

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Digitalization offers a range of new options for innovative developments in today’s working environment. The changes that come with the advances in digital technologies are particularly evident in the industrial sector. Artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, big data, interconnectivity, real-time communication, virtual and augmented reality, remote monitoring and remote process control are defining for the new era called Industry 4.0. The rapidness of these developments and the changes that they bring about for the work of employees present new challenges for occupational safety and health. Just to name two examples: In order to improve the quality and pace of work by handling repetitive and tiresome tasks, cobots in industries collaborate with workers unsafeguarded and hand in hand, which may lead to risks as injuries from direct contact with robots or the equipment that they use. In other sectors, the demand of permanent availability and irregular working hours blurs the boundaries between work and privacy, with negative impacts on the employee’s resilience and mental health.

While the digitalization brings new challenges, it can facilitate the efforts of occupational safety and health in a variety of ways. This Special Issue focusses on new technologies in the field of occupational safety and health. Topics of interest include—but are not limited to

  • assistant systems in machinery
  • virtual reality in risk assessment
  • augmented reality in process monitoring
  • artificial intelligence in occupational safety and health
  • collaborative robotics
  • smart PPE
  • human factors

Prof. Dr. Marc Wittlich
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • digitalization
  • occupational safety
  • Industry 4.0
  • digital factory
  • artificial intelligence
  • assistance system
  • new technologies
  • virtual reality
  • augmented reality
  • collaborative robots

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3671 KiB  
Article
Experimental Comparison of Biofidel Measuring Devices Used for the Validation of Collaborative Robotics Applications
by Jan Zimmermann, Michael Huelke and Matthias Clermont
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13657; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph192013657 - 21 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1620
Abstract
Biofidel measuring devices are used to validate safety in collaborative workplaces. In these workplaces, humans work together with robots that are equipped with a Power and Force Limiting function (PFL). In this experimental comparison, differences between devices and possible causes are examined more [...] Read more.
Biofidel measuring devices are used to validate safety in collaborative workplaces. In these workplaces, humans work together with robots that are equipped with a Power and Force Limiting function (PFL). In this experimental comparison, differences between devices and possible causes are examined more closely. Safety-related parameters are identified in a literature review. Focusing on mechanical aspects, three biofidel measuring devices are analysed and compared in an experimental test series. To this end, a linear motor and a pendulum are used and the steps for comparing concepts are proposed and applied. Depending on the stiffness settings and the materials used, geometry effects on the force-deformation behaviour are shown. An oscillation occurred in one case. The comparison of the three devices shows average differences of 5% in measured peak force between them. This study helps to achieve uniform and comparable results in practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digitalization as a Driving Force for Occupational Safety)
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11 pages, 4230 KiB  
Article
Improving the Understanding of Low Frequency Magnetic Field Exposure with Augmented Reality
by Florian Soyka and Julian Simons
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(17), 10564; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph191710564 - 24 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1457
Abstract
Low frequency magnetic fields are often present in our everyday life due to the multitude of electronic devices. High magnetic fields can occur in the workplace from a wide variety of machines and systems, which must be measured and evaluated from the point [...] Read more.
Low frequency magnetic fields are often present in our everyday life due to the multitude of electronic devices. High magnetic fields can occur in the workplace from a wide variety of machines and systems, which must be measured and evaluated from the point of view of occupational safety. To facilitate the understanding of magnetic fields by supervisors and employees in the workplace, an augmented reality (AR) application was developed to visualize the measured flux densities and the resulting safety distances. The application was deployed on two smartphones, allowing for the simultaneous viewing of the same scene without the use of additional markers. Whether the application creates a better understanding of the exposure situation was evaluated with the help of an online survey. In this survey, participants received either a classic measurement report or a report enhanced by augmented images. The evaluation shows that it subjectively felt less difficult for participants with the augmented report to answer questions about the exposure situation. Furthermore, they also objectively performed better in answering the questions than did the group with the classic report. Therefore, this work shows that AR enhanced images can improve the understanding of an exposure situation, and it describes how such images and videos can be created. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digitalization as a Driving Force for Occupational Safety)
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32 pages, 792 KiB  
Article
Sources of Risk of AI Systems
by André Steimers and Moritz Schneider
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(6), 3641; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19063641 - 18 Mar 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5179
Abstract
Artificial intelligence can be used to realise new types of protective devices and assistance systems, so their importance for occupational safety and health is continuously increasing. However, established risk mitigation measures in software development are only partially suitable for applications in AI systems, [...] Read more.
Artificial intelligence can be used to realise new types of protective devices and assistance systems, so their importance for occupational safety and health is continuously increasing. However, established risk mitigation measures in software development are only partially suitable for applications in AI systems, which only create new sources of risk. Risk management for systems that for systems using AI must therefore be adapted to the new problems. This work objects to contribute hereto by identifying relevant sources of risk for AI systems. For this purpose, the differences between AI systems, especially those based on modern machine learning methods, and classical software were analysed, and the current research fields of trustworthy AI were evaluated. On this basis, a taxonomy could be created that provides an overview of various AI-specific sources of risk. These new sources of risk should be taken into account in the overall risk assessment of a system based on AI technologies, examined for their criticality and managed accordingly at an early stage to prevent a later system failure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digitalization as a Driving Force for Occupational Safety)
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17 pages, 8417 KiB  
Article
Multi-Criterial Algorithm for the Efficient and Ergonomic Manual Assembly Process
by Maja Turk, Marko Šimic, Miha Pipan and Niko Herakovič
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(6), 3496; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19063496 - 16 Mar 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2521
Abstract
Industry 4.0 introduces smart solutions throughout the company’s supply chain, including manual assembly, where the goal is to ensure shorter work cycle time, increase productivity and quality, while minimizing costs. Following the principles of this paradigm, this paper proposes a digital transformation of [...] Read more.
Industry 4.0 introduces smart solutions throughout the company’s supply chain, including manual assembly, where the goal is to ensure shorter work cycle time, increase productivity and quality, while minimizing costs. Following the principles of this paradigm, this paper proposes a digital transformation of the manual assembly process by implementing a multi-criterial algorithm (MCA) for adjusting and configuring a human-centered smart manual assembly workstation to ensure efficient and ergonomic performance of the manual assembly process. The MCA takes into account various influential parameters, such as the anthropometry of the individual worker, gender, complexity of the assembly process, product characteristics, and product structure. The efficiency of the MCA was verified both in the laboratory environment with the time analysis and in the virtual environment using Digital Human Modelling through several ergonomic analyses. The results of the implementation of the MCA on a manual assembly workstation support the digital (re)design of the manual assembly process with the aim of creating an efficient and ergonomically suitable workstation for each worker, thus increasing the productivity and efficiency of the human-centered manual assembly process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digitalization as a Driving Force for Occupational Safety)
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