PPEs Compliance Technology to Legalize the Automated Monitoring of Safety Standards

Governments are always looking to monitor safety violations on construction sites. Those violations are not only causing numerous injuries and deaths to workers but also delays and subsequently costs to the project developers. In the hierarchy of control, personal protective equipment (PPE), albeit the least effective, is still one of the most visible and therefore fundamental controls to protect workers from workplace hazards. While PPE should be monitored at all times by the related authorities and project organizations, adequately trained staff and availability to monitor projects often fails short. Therefore, monitoring the right use of PPE electronically has yet to become a recommended practice for safety and health programs. This paper examines the application of legalizing smart hard hat to monitor the use of PPE among construction site workers. Using automated cameras and detection technology the PPE will be detected and analyzed. The proposed approach then automatically identifies violators and safety alerts will be issued correspondingly. The developed technology has been tested on real sites. Results from these tests were used for legalizing this technology for everyday construction application in the UAE.