Collaborative Research: Automatic Behavior Monitoring for In-depth Analysis of Construction Fatalities and Injuries

本研究的目的是探索基于计算机视觉的监测方法，使建筑工人的自动和不断的观察，深入的安全分析。考虑到建筑业的死亡人数仍然是所有行业中最高的，并且大约80%至90%的事故与工人的不安全行为和行为密切相关，自动捕获和系统地了解不安全行为具有很大的潜力，有助于减少和预防建筑业的伤害和死亡。具体而言，使用视频和图像序列，该系统估计的2D位置的人体骨架，计算的3D位置的身体关节，并确定工人？使用机器学习技术的不安全动作。为了研究所提出的用于行为监测的方法的可行性和潜力，创伤中的几种代表性运动（例如，福尔斯）和人体工程学（例如，过度用力和重复性运动）损伤作为案例研究进行测试。如果成功的话，这项研究的结果可以通过深入了解人类在安全方面的行为和行动来预防建筑业的伤亡。此外，本项目中开发的运动分析技术可应用于各种行业（例如，制造业和造船业），其中劳动力是一种重要的资源，提供了一种自动收集人类行为数据的手段，从而能够有效地理解人类行为。此外，教育计划（例如，该课程涉及了解人类安全行为，以及为行业专业人员和学生计划的研讨会）将为未来的管理人员和工程师提供有效的教育，他们都将提高美国工作场所的安全性。此外，将招募女性和代表性不足的学生，并将其纳入计划的研究和教育活动（例如，安全研讨会和讲习班以及跨学科研究参与机会）。

The objective of this research is to explore computer vision-based monitoring methods, enabling the automatic and constant observation of construction workers for in-depth safety analysis. Taking into account the fact that the number of fatalities in construction remains the highest among all industries, and that approximately 80 to 90 percent of accidents are strongly associated with workers' unsafe behavior and acts, the automatic capture and systematic understanding of unsafe behavior has great potential to contribute to the reduction and prevention of injuries and fatalities in construction. Specifically, using video and image sequences, the proposed system estimates the 2D location of a human skeleton, computes the 3D location of body joints, and identifies the worker?s unsafe motions using machine learning techniques. To investigate the feasibility and potential of the proposed methods for behavior monitoring, several representative motions in traumatic (e.g., falls) and ergonomic (e.g., overexertion and repetitive motions) injuries are tested as a case study. If successful, the findings of this research could lead to the prevention of injuries and fatalities in the construction industry by providing an in-depth understanding of human behavior and actions in terms of safety. Further, the motion analysis techniques developed in this project can be applied to diverse industries (e.g., manufacturing and shipbuilding) where labor is an important resource, providing a means to automatically collect data on human behavior and thus enabling its effective understanding. In addition, the education plan (e.g., the course that deals with understanding human behavior in safety, and the workshop planned for industry professionals and students) will provide effective education of future managers and engineers, both of whom will improve safety in the US workplace. Further, female and underrepresented students will be recruited and integrated into the planned research and education activities (e.g., safety seminars and workshops and interdisciplinary research participation opportunities).