Authors:
Taynan Roger Silva
1
;
Bruno Nazário Coelho
2
and
Saul Emanuel Delabrida
3
Affiliations:
1
Graduate Program in Instrumentation, Control and Automation of Mining Processes (PROFICAM), Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) and Vale Institute of Technology (ITV), Ouro Preto, Brazil
;
2
Control and Automation Engineering Department (DECAT), Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto, Brazil
;
3
Department of Computing (DECOM), Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto, Brazil
Keyword(s):
Confined Spaces, Occupational Health and Safety, Human-computer Interaction.
Abstract:
Although there is a growing concern about accidents and illnesses at work, global statistics still reveal alarming data. It is estimated that 2.78 million people die each year worldwide due to labor factors. In this regard, information systems and automation systems applied to occupational health and safety are gaining prominence for accident prevention. One of the high risk activities that have adopted technology as an ally is working in confined spaces. Currently, non-human entry robotic systems have been widely adopted for this purpose. However, these solutions do not always cover all scenarios, still requiring humans to perform tasks in those locations. Thus, it is expected that the new era of work in confined environments will be increasingly guided by hybrid systems of human-computer interaction. Some solutions from this perspective foresee the use of wearable computing, virtual reality and augmented reality to assist at these locations. The challenges in adopting these new tec
hnologies still consist in the characteristics of the environments themselves, which are hostile places with natural blockages for traditional communication and data transmission signals.
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