An Occupational Health and Safety Monitoring

System
S.A. Ngubo, C.P. Kruger, G.P. Hancke and B.J. Silva
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa
Corresponding author: silva.bjc@gmail.com

Abstract—Hazardous environments at the workplace are a
significant contributor to injuries due to accidents as well as
chronic diseases. There are many occupational health and safety
(OHS) systems, but they are costly or not flexible. This paper
presents a low-cost OHS. It consists of various sensors that can be
used to monitor whether a safety helmet is being worn, the
worker is mobile and safety boots are being worn. The system
interfaces with a wireless sensor network and is suitable for
operation in environments such as underground mines and
sawmills.
Keywords— activity monitory; occupational health and safety;
smart helmet; wireless sensor network.
I. INTRODUCTION
Recent advances in Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Wireless
Sensor Networks (WSNs) have enabled monitoring for various
application scenarios [1], [2], where deployment and
experimental evaluation of devices is desirable [3], [4]. In
particular, monitoring the well-being of subjects (e.g. people or
animals) in general is of utmost important [5], [6], and this can
be achieved using short range technologies [7] as well as long
range technologies which enable wider coverage [8]. A
relevant application domain within this field is occupational
health and safety (OHS). The workplace is a significant
contributor to injuries due to accidents and chronic diseases
due to environmental hazards. Although current health and
safety regulations may be regarded as significantly progressive
in improving worker protection, the systems in place for
surveillance of health and safety suffer from a number of
limitations [9].
Several approaches to solving this problem are currently
available but they are not at a high level of technological
development. A method for monitoring health and safety in the
workplace, referred to as ‘surveillance on self-report’, is one
type of OHS monitoring. This OHS monitoring method
consists of a collection of data on certain aspects of health and
safety obtained by dispensing self-administered questionnaires
to employees or managers and supervisors in workplaces, and
subsequently administering regular feedback on the responses
[9]. Another method is risk management process, which is
fundamental to most OHS statutes. The underlying premise of
risk management is that improvements in health and safety can
be made by correctly identifying and addressing hazards or
factors (which may be underlying or direct) that contribute to
occupational risk. The main components of risk management
are hazard identification, risk assessment, implementation of
controls, monitoring of controls, review, and adjustment or
redesign of controls as necessary [10].
The problem addressed in this work is the design and
implementation of a low-cost wireless monitoring OHS system
that can be deployed in the work place, more specifically
within harsh environments such as in mines or sawmills. To
this end, we design and implement an OHS system which
consists of a Wireless Smart Transducer Interface Module
(WSTIM) that is able to transmit and receive data periodically
and reliably, making the system capable of monitoring health
and safety in a work environment [11]. This system monitors
whether a worker is wearing his/her safety helmet and safety
boots, and whether he/she is immobile or not.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: the basics of
OHS and similar systems in literature are presented in Section
II; an overview of the proposed system is given in Section III;
the design and implementation of the proposed system are
discussed in Section IV; the results are presented and discussed
in Section V; and in Section VI, the paper is finally concluded
and some future work is discussed.
II. BACKGROUND
This section discusses some aspects of OHS and some
related work.
A. Occupational health and safety
Occupational health and wellbeing of working people are
crucial prerequisites for productivity and are of utmost
importance for all socioeconomic and sustainable development.
The workplace is a significant contributor to injuries due to
accidents and chronic diseases due to environmental hazards.
Preventing occupational illnesses, injuries and fatalities
requires immediate action. Over the past decade, there has been
a surge of accidents in mines across the globe [10].
The recent emergence of WSN technology is significantly
impacting the capabilities for automated distributed monitoring
of environments. The low manufacturing cost of sensors,
increased coverage and accuracy in distributed sensing due to
their large deployments and their ability to operate in
inhospitable terrains has made them an amenable technology
for various surveillance and monitoring applications [12]. The
importance of WSNs in mining applications lies in its
simplicity coupled with great efficiency. In a disaster - such as
a fire - conventional wired sensor networks may become
unreliable, necessitating a wireless radio system which is easier
and less expensive to deploy and maintain.

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B. Other systems in literature
Several OHS systems have been proposed recently.
Systems similar to the one proposed in this work include [13] -
[15]. The system in [13] consists of a smart safety helmet
(SSH) which is able to measure electroencephalography (EEG) Fig. 2. Description of the WNCAP.
and also has an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to detect
worker fatigue. The system can track head gestures and brain
activity to recognize anomalous behavior.
Similarly, the system in [14] is a wireless SSH that uses a
433 MHz module for wireless communication. It is equipped
with temperature, humidity and fire sensors. It connects
wirelessly to a gateway and is specifically aimed at mining
environments. The system in [15] is not aimed at OHS, but can
be easily adapted for this purpose. It measures force and speed
to detect bicycle accidents, and it has uses 315 MHz transceiver
to communicate with a gateway. The system proposed in this
paper relies on low-cost sensors and it easier to
expand/augment (i.e. add modules to) than similar systems in
literature. Fig. 3. Overview of the entire system.

III. OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM

This section contains general information on the proposed
system.
A. Description of the system
The system consists of the main sub-systems: a wireless
smart transducer interface module (WSTIM) and a wireless
network capable application processor (WNCAP). The data
collected by the system’s sensors is relayed to the WNCAP via
IEEE 802.15.4. The WNCAP is connected to a PC which hosts
a graphical user interface (GUI) so that the user can view the
current status of the workers and make decisions based on this
information.
The WSTIM consists of multiple sensors, namely, load
sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes and light sensors,
necessary to determine the current status of the worker, and
these interface with a dsPIC microcontroller (MCU),
responsible for retrieving the data from the sensors and
reporting it wirelessly to the WNCAP, which then displays it
and logs it. These are used to determine whether the miner is
wearing his/her safety helmet and is not immobile, for instance.
Two subsystems and the complete system are illustrated in Fig.
1, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, respectively.
Fig. 1. Description of the WSTIM.
IV. DETAILED DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
This section contains information on the design and
implementation of the proposed system. Table I summarizes
the characteristics of the wireless sensor node.
TABLE I
WIRELESS SENSOR NODE SPECS
Specification Details
Microcontroller dsPIC30F4013
Transceiver (802.15.4) Dizic DZ-ZB-G
Accelerometer (3-axis) MMA7361L
Weight Sensor Strain gauge based
(Wheatstone bridge)
Light sensors LDR (x 2)
The following sub-sections discuss the hardware and
software specifications in detail.
A. WSTIM control unit
The microcontroller (MCU) used for the sensor node is the
dsPIC30F4013. This 16-bit microcontroller executes all the
software responsible for connecting the sensor node with the
server, and well as sampling data from all sensors. Since it has
a 12-bit ADC, it is suitable for the purposes of this project. The
control unit is housed in a safety helmet, along with other
sensors. This serves as the core of the OHS.
The transceiver for the WSTIM is the DiZiC DZ-ZB-G RF
module, which has as on-board 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3
STM32W108CC MCU and is IEEE 802.15.4 compliant. This
module interfaces with the MCU via serial peripheral interface
(SPI). The PCB of this part of the wireless sensor node is
illustrated in Fig. 4. One of the reasons this module was
selected is the fact that it is an open platform which has been
used in research [16] and lots of free resources exist.

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Fig. 4. PCB of wireless sensor node (WSTIM).

The radio of the DiZiC module operates at 2.4 GHz and has
a data rate of up to 250 kb/s. The configuration selected for this
Fig. 5. Helmet showing 2 LDRs and a proximity sensor to determine
system is a mesh network. The Dizic module runs the Contiki
whether the worker is wearing the helmet or not.
operating system, enabling IPv6 over Low Power Wireless
Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN). In this mesh network,
The proximity sensor also interfaces with an ADC channel
each wireless node serves as relay between the source node and
the other nodes that are part of the mesh. on the MCU and it keeps a low output by default, which only
goes high if an object is detected. The MCU samples the
B. WNCAP control unit values from the three sensors and based on the sensor
The wireless transceiver of the WNCAP is on the readings, the software on the MCU makes a decision on
client/receiving end of the network. It receives all the data sent whether the helmet is being worn by the worker or not. The
through the mesh network and is connected to a PC which circuit diagram used for the LDRs is illustrated in Fig. 6.
hosts the GUI. The module acts as a border router or gateway
router between the mesh network and the PC. The data
reaching the WNCAP is sent using RESTful resources in
CoAP message formats, therefore the WNCAP needs to be
able to decode and parse messages in this format. To this end,
the Californium CoAP framework in Java was used to interpret
the messages.
C. Helmet light and proximity sensors
The helmet uses two light dependent resistors (LDRs) and
a proximity sensor to sense whether the worker is wearing the
helmet or not. One of the LDRs is mounted on the left side of
the helmet and the other LDR is mounted on the right side,
both close to the location of the ears. The proximity sensor is Fig. 6. Schematic diagrams of LDR circuits.
placed on the top inside part of the helmet. D. Weight sensor
When the worker wears the helmet, both LDRs are
completely covered by the hat, making it a very dark This sensor is used to determine whether the worker
environment typically in the range of 0 – 500 lux. The assigned to a specific pair of boots is wearing them at all times.
proximity sensor is programmed to detect objects within 5 cm The sensor is based on strain gauges, which are variable
such that when the worker wears the helmet, the proximity resistors whose resistance changes according to the amount of
sensor is able to detect it. The placement of sensors in the strain/weight applied to it. These strain gauges are connected in
helmet is illustrated in Fig. 5. a full-bridge Wheatstone configuration, as shown in Fig. 7.
If the readings from the sensors are all positive it means the Resistive load cells work on the principle of piezo-resistivity.
worker is indeed wearing the helmet. Each LDR is connected When a stress/weight is applied to the sensor, it changes its
to a voltage divider. Since the resistance of the LDR changes resistance. This change in resistance leads to a change in output
with the amount of incident light, the output voltage Vout on voltage when an excitation voltage is applied. The resistive
the voltage divider can be used to detect the light and is load cell is not as accurate as a capacitive load cell but it is
connected to an ADC channel on the dsPIC MCU. much more reliable over a wider temperature range.

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 1) Sensor data acquisition algorithms
A flowchart of the sensor data acquisition code is shown in
Fig. 9. The code was implemented on the dsPIC30F4013 using
C and is used to execute the operation of the WSTIM, such as
sampling the data from sensors, processing it, and sending it
wirelessly to the WNCAP.
If true
Start If (force
Get force forceStatus=7
reading < Else
reading
threshold) forceStatus=4
Set
configuration
bits

If (weight If true
Variable and Get weight shoeStatus=7
reading reading <
function Else
threshold)
declarations shoeStatus=4
Fig. 7. Weight sensor schematic diagram.
Initialize
variables and
I/O ports Get left LDR, If true
The strain gauges used here have a resistance of Rg = 1000 right LDR and
proximity
If (all 3 readings
< threshold)
hatStatus=7
Else
Initialize
Ω when no weight is applied to them. The full bridge peripheral readings hatStatus=4
modules
arrangement for a load cell is such that two strain gauges have NO YES

a positive change to tension, whereas the other two have a Receive instruction Acquire data
YES
positive change to compression [17]. Thus, when a weight is via SPI from
wireless module
SPI interrupt
flag bit set?
Instruction
received?
Send worker
status via SPI to
applied on the sensor, two of the sensors increase their NO wireless module

resistance while the other two decrease it. This change in Clear
resistance causes an unbalance in the bridge, which provides a interrupt flag
bit

differential output corresponding to the weight placed [18]. An

ADN620 amplifier was used to achieve a gain of 275 (by
setting Rx = 180 Ω) such that the output of the Wheatstone
bridge is conditioned by putting in a voltage range that can be
detected by the ADC. The output of the ADN620 amplifier is
connected to the dsPIC’s ADC.
E. Force sensor
This sensor is used to determine whether a worker has
experienced a (harsh) force larger than 1.5 G and if this force
has made the worker change orientation by making them fall.
A Freescale Semiconductor MMA7361LC 3-axis
accelerometer was selected for this purpose. It is used to detect
any acceleration of 1.5 G or higher as well as any tilt
disturbances imposed on the worker. The x-axis, y-axis and the
z-axis outputs (XOUT, YOUT and ZOUT, respectively) of the
accelerometer interface with the ADC input channels on the
dsPIC. The interface with the MCU is illustrated in Fig. 8.
Fig. 9. Data acquisition program flow diagram.
Once all the initializations (e.g. I/O port, ADC and SPI)
have been done, the code then stays in an infinite loop that
keeps waiting to receive an instruction via the SPI module from
the GUI through the wireless DiZiC modules attached to the
dsPIC MCU. The SPI interface between the MCU and the
Dizic module is based on SPI interrupts to mitigate effects
from occasional noise on the SPI lines. Once all sensors have
been sampled and the current status is known, this information
is forwarded to the PC’s GUI wirelessly.
2) Graphical user interface
This functional unit of the system displays the current state
of each worker that is being monitored, and to determine
whether they comply with the OHS regulations that this system
is monitoring. The GUI was implemented in Java, since it has
to be integrated with the Californium framework, which is also
Java based. The main menu of the GUI is shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 8. Accelerometer schematic diagram.

The LM3940 voltage regulator is used to regulate and step

down the 5V supply voltage to 3.3 V required to power the
accelerometer. Fig. 10. Main menu of the GUI.
F. Software
A brief description of the main software components which The GUI was designed with a few debugging features to
comprise the system follows. help the user while the application is running.

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 V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section discusses the results of all experiments.
A. Weight sensor test
The objective of this experiment was to determine whether
the weight sensor was able to detect weight within the required
accuracy. This was tested by placing the sensor inside a scale
and determining the weight of different gym weights. Readings
were also compared to a bathroom scale using weights from 55
to 80 Kgs. The results of this experiment are shown in Table II.
TABLE II
RESULTS OF WEIGHT READINGS
Weight Off the shelf scale Weight sensor
Placed (kg) reading (kg) reading (kg)
55 55 54.1
60 60 60.9
65 65 64.8
70 70 69.8
75 75 74.5
80 80 80.9
It is seen that the weight sensor can measure weight with an
accuracy of 95%.
B. Light intensity and proximity sensors
The function of the light intensity sensors and proximity
sensors was tested by wearing the helmet and removing it
several times and observing the output on the MCU. It was
found that in 100% of the times the combination of these
sensors was able to detect whether the helmet was being worn
or not.
C. Discussion of results
The performance of the system is mainly determined by
how well the system is able to reflect the true conditions of the
workers in the mine. It was determined from the algorithm
testing that the system produced good results and met the GUI
accuracy specification. The system was accurate although the
latency between the wireless communication modules was
sometimes inconsistent.
The performance of the weight sensors was found to be
within the required specification. The results were found to be
inconsistent although the resistors that were used to design the
sensors were of the same type. This was due to tolerances that
are inherent in most resistors as well as the fact that the
voltages from the Wheatstone bridges were conditioned by
amplification. This meant that even the smallest differences
before amplification became noticeable after. The tolerances
were taken into account and their effect was reduced by using
1% tolerance resistors. This caused the present inconsistencies
to be minimal. The algorithm that was implemented on the
dsPIC30F4013 was also designed to further compensate for
the difference in the resistances, thus giving a result that was
accurate within specifications.
The wireless nature of the system implied that the
integration of all the WSN nodes was easier than would have
been with a wired implementation. It became clear from the
wireless configuration that the wired configuration would have
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limited the range that could be achieved because of costs and
convenience. The distance of communication that was
measured was 152 meters between the wireless modules. This
result was achieved mainly because the wireless DiZiC
modules used have power amplifiers which increase the
transmission range.
The light sensors were conditioned to detect a light
intensity of between 0 lux and 2000 lux which is the light
intensity of a bright fluorescent light similar to the lights used
in the mines to illuminate the work space.
VI. CONCLUSION
The goal of this work was to design and implement an
occupational health and safety monitoring system. A weight
sensor was designed and implemented to acquire the weight of
a worker. The weight sensor had to be designed to have an
accuracy of 95%. Light sensors also needed to be designed
and implemented. The light sensors were designed to sense a
light of between 0 and 2000 lux. The system’s main focus was
using sensors that were placed on the PPE of workers who
work in a mine to determine whether or not each specific
worker was complying with certain occupational health and
safety regulations, and to test for any harsh forces that the
workers might have experienced that could result in them
being knocked off balance. The health and safety regulations
that were monitored were whether the worker is wearing their
assigned safety helmet as well as their assigned safety boots.
For future work, this system can be augmented with
tracking capabilities such as inertial sensors mounted on the
worker’s boots or using wireless localization on the available
wireless infrastructure that the sensor nodes connect to [19],
[20]. This is particularly useful to locate miners in emergency
situations. Another aspect that we will consider (which is often
overlooked) is security of the sensors’ data, given its
privacy implications [21]. Energy efficiency and explosion
protection will also be investigated.
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