Enhance Factory Operator Safety with AI Technology
28/12/2023
![](https://advcloudfiles.advantech.com/cms/08e7d430-7f26-473d-8db6-a91df1777026/Content/worker-safety_820.jpg)
Workplace safety is vital to protect employees from hazards and other dangers that may occur in the workplace. The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index reported that for every $1 a company invests in workplace safety, the result amounts to a $4 return on investment. Our customer was looking for a vision AI solution that can help the manufacturing manager ensure operational safety while also improving efficiency and productivity with two specific objectives:
• To check if an operator is wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) such as cap, wrist strap, and mask properly
• Employee clock-in and secured area control
Challenge
The development team installed IP cameras at the entrance and around the factory floor to capture real-time images. A powerful edge AI system was required to enable factories to clock in whole groups of employees, grant permissions for working zones, and ensure that anyone attempting to operate specialized machinery is wearing proper safety attire, with no excessive idle time. Additionally, an alert will be immediately sent to the manager if there are any abnormalities among personnel as they operate crucial equipment.
Solutions
Advantech collaborated with CyberLink to implement AI-based facial recognition technology for seamless access control and securing restricted areas, while another ISV partner contributed to PPE and idle time detection. To enable AI-based analytics capabilities, monitor assembly lines, and detect employee working efficiency in the production line, AIR-020, an ultra-compact, low-power AI inference device, supports 21 TOPS for real-time detection on the edge. It is built-in with the NVIDIA Jetson family and Yolo5 AI-trained models from an ISV partner, capable of processing images and detecting PPE and worker movement with low latency.
Featuring a small footprint of just 5.47" x 4.33" x 1.75", the AIR-020 AI box fits perfectly into an industrial environment
with its support for wide-range 12-24V DC power input, -10 to 55°C operating range, and vibration and humidity
resistance. The unit is equipped with extensive I/O ports for seamless camera, Wi-Fi, storage and multifunction
module connections. Likewise, AIR-020 benefits from Ubuntu 20.04 enhanced security and stability, including a
constant security patching process and kernel self-protection, stack-clash protection, and control-flow integrity
features.
CyberLink suppor ted Advantech from star t to
finish, from acquiring custom data and visualizing
it, to training the deep learning model and testing
it, adapting it, and validating the inference results
directly on AIR-020. CyberLink FaceMe helped
enhance outstanding image processing, issues
related to poor lighting and image quality caused by
environmental conditions, are resolved. It enables
attendance management, access control, and
restricted area control through facial recognition
accurately securely, and sends real-time alerts to
manufacturing managers.
Advantech collaborated with an ISV partner and
CyberLink to provide integrated solutions, assisting
our customers in seamlessly implementing AI
technology into their applications. With supported
trained AI models, it enhanced outstanding image
processing, addressing issues related to poor
lighting and image quality caused by environmental
conditions. This enables accurate and secure PPE
verification, attendance management, and access
control through facial recognition, with real-time
alerts sent to manufacturing managers.
Benefits
• Leverage solutions developed by ISV partners
• Reliable compact AI system designed to meet the
demands of critical working environments.
• Ubuntu Image 20.04 and the latest built-in JetPack:
convenient for AI development
Results
• Boosted operator safety and efficiency
• Managers free up time to focus on production
planning and operations
![](https://advcloudfiles.advantech.com/cms/08e7d430-7f26-473d-8db6-a91df1777026/Content/worker-safety-diagram.jpg)