Sensorized Devices and Technologies for Occupational Risk Assessment and Prevention
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Wearables".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 March 2023) | Viewed by 3855
Special Issue Editors
Interests: wearable technology; Internet of Things; occupational risk prevention
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: applied acoustics; wearable sensors; Parkinson's disease; noise control; industrial applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: human factors and ergonomics; occupational safety; hygiene; safety engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nowadays, the number of devices with sensors built in is growing fast. These devices are used in popular consumer electronics and in professional devices for a variety of applications. Currently, reducing work-related injuries and illnesses is an open challenge. Thanks to recent technological advances, several technologies have opened up new and exciting opportunities for occupational risk assessment and prevention. Portable sensorized devices enable the continuous monitoring of posture, movement, noise, light, temperature, chemical concentrations, vital signs, etc., which can be used as diagnostic tools for occupational risk prevention.
The early prevention of situations of occupational risk before they occur helps to reduce the impact of accidents and illnesses in our lives. Currently, the technology opens a wide range of solutions; devices such as smartphones, tablets, or wearables (e.g., smartwatches, smart wristbands) are used to manage specific occupational health problems. The combination of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data (collection and analysis of large amounts of data), and smart working environments (SWE) provides an opportunity for monitoring activities conducted by the worker, machinery, and tools in order to provide safer occupational environments.
These technologies, however, also come with their own challenges, such as their reliability, validity, and feasibility within occupational risk-assessment contexts, and the challenging interpretability of the data to effectively inform prevention practice.
Additionally, the resulting synergies should also be considered in managing occupational risk prevention, such as prevention enhancement, accident and illness reduction, productivity improvement, cost reduction, availability, and sharing of information, data privacy, quasi-real-time decision making, as well as integration with the concepts of digitization of industry (Industry 4.0).
This Special Issue aims to highlight the most recent research regarding wearables for occupational risk assessment and prevention, sensor-based technics for accident and illness reduction, and more generally, sensor-based methods and technics to obtain safer occupational environments.
Contributions that address, but are not restricted to, the following topics are welcome:
• Wearable sensors;
• Reliability and validity of sensor-based measurements;
• Sensor-based feedback on motor performance, motion and activity detection;
• Recognition of work-related musculoskeletal disorders by sensors and/or wearable devices;
• Fall detection systems;
• Innovative applications for monitoring occupational safety and health risk factors;
• Smart clothing/textiles technologies for monitoring occupational safety and health risk factors;
• Innovative smartphone applications for monitoring occupational safety and health risk factors;
• Wearable technology for physical, chemical, and/or biological exposure monitoring;
• Body sensor networks.
Dr. Juan Manuel López
Dr. Ignacio Pavón García
Dr. Nélson Costa
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- occupational risk prevention (ORP)
- wearables or wearable technology
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- big data
- smart work environments (SWE)
- Industry 4.0
- digitalization of occupational safety and health (OH+S)
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