•Perception, cognition and control methods for safe human robot interaction.•Safe hardware and software development, low level admittance controller.•Human aware navigation, virtual collaborative ...zones.•Psychological factors in human robot interaction.•Robot safety features chronological map.•Systems’ theoretic analysis.
In the era of industrialization and automation, safety is a critical factor that should be considered during the design and realization of each new system that targets operation in close collaboration with humans. Of such systems are considered personal and professional service robots which collaborate and interact with humans at diverse applications environments. In this collaboration, human safety is an important factor in the wider field of human-robot interaction (HRI) since it facilitates their harmonic coexistence. The paper at hand aims to systemize the recent literature by describing the required levels of safety during human-robot interaction, focusing on the core functions of the collaborative robots when performing specific processes. It is also oriented towards the existing methods for psychological safety during human-robot collaboration and its impact at the robot behaviour, while also discusses in depth the psychological parameters of robots incorporation in industrial and social environments. Based on the existing works on safety features that minimize the risk of HRI, a classification of the existing works into five major categories namely, Robot Perceptions for Safe HRI, Cognition-enabled robot control in HRI, Action Planning for safe navigation close to humans, Hardware safety features, and Societal and Psychological factors is also applied. Finally, the current study further discusses the existing risk assessment techniques as methods to offer additional safety in robotic systems presenting thus a holistic analysis of the safety in contemporary robots, and proposes a roadmap for safety compliance features during the development of a robotic system.
•The study applied science mapping approach in reviewing construction safety research.•Mainstream keywords such as BIM were identified in existing literature.•Influential journals, scholars, and ...articles in construction safety were evaluated.•An in-depth qualitative discussion identified existing research topics and limitations.•A research framework was proposed by linking mainstream topics into future research directions.
This study adopted a three-step holistic review approach consisting of bibliometric review, scientometric analysis, and in-depth discussion to gain a deeper understanding of the research development in construction safety. Focusing on a total of 513 journal articles published in Scopus, the influential journals, keywords, scholars, and articles in the domain of construction safety were analyzed. For example, simulation and fall from height related topics, although not with the highest occurrence of being studied, had the highest impact in terms of average citation received per year. It was found that research in the recent 10 years have been extended to the developing countries and regions with a more variety of research topics, such as BIM, and data mining, etc. Articles related to applying BIM in safety management received the highest average normalized citation. A follow-up qualitative discussion targeted three main objectives: summarizing mainstream research topics, identifying existing research gaps, and proposing future research directions. Five main categories were aligned, namely safety climate and safety culture, application of information technologies, worker-oriented safety, safety management program, and hazard recognition and risk assessment. Based on the above, a framework and future research directions were proposed which could serve both the academic community and practical fields in multiple themes within construction safety, including: an adaptable safety climate and safety culture model; prototypes, continuous development, and readiness of applying information technologies in safety management; subgroups factors linked to cognitive models of workers’ safety perceptions and behaviors; and artificial intelligence and smart technologies into safety program management.
Virtual reality (VR) techniques are becoming increasingly popular. The use of computer modeling and visualization is no longer uncommon in the area of ergonomics and occupational health and safety. ...This book explains that studies conducted in a simulated virtual world make it possible to test new solutions of designed workstations, offering a high degree of ease for introducing modifications and eliminating risk and work-related accidents. Virtual reality techniques offer a wide range of possibilities for people with disabilities and special needs, assisting them in the process of adapting to workstations, increasing the cognitive abilities of the elderly, and using collaborative robots.
The book includes testing protective devices and safety systems, as well as the numerical reconstruction of accidents at work to identify their real causes. It shows the use of computer simulations in generic virtual environments and environments modeled on a target workstation to allow user adaptability.
The book provides examples of using virtual reality for training and improving workers’ skills. With the use of virtual reality, safety managers make it possible to train employees and test new solutions of designed workstations, offering a high degree of ease for introducing modifications and eliminating risk related to work. The virtual world will provide the perfect tool to support the engineering of a safer workplace environment.
On the one hand, it is a self-study book made so by well-crafted and numerous examples. On the other hand, through a detailed analysis of the virtual reality from a point of view of work safety and ergonomics and health improvement, this book provides practical information for professionals and programmers responsible for the development and improvement of this type of applications. This monograph will be welcomed by virtual reality designers looking for new avenues of inspiration.
Ewa Grabska, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Noteworthy is the broad scope and diversity of the addressed problems, ranging from training employees using VR environments with different degrees of perceived reality; training and rehabilitation of the elderly; to designing, testing, modifying, and adapting workplaces to various needs including those of disabled workers; to simulation and investigation of the cause of accidents at a workplace, as well as testing protective devices and strategies to avoid or minimize their fatal outcomes. The book contains many original and unique results supported by advanced methods of collecting and analyzing the data, elaborate research, and detailed statistical tests. The book can serve also as a concise manual on the issues touched on in the text.
Andrzej Krawiecki, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
Tourist safety is a pertinent global issue affecting travellers and destinations. This study presents a conceptualization of tourists' sense of safety, including their expected and experienced ...safety. This study outlines the measurement of tourists' expected and experienced safety by surveying Chinese domestic tourists who visited Xiamen, China. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes reveal 20 measurement items that fall under 5 dimensions of tourists' expected and experienced safety: safety concerns, tourism environment, facilities and services, regional culture, and safety information. Significant differences emerged on all five dimensions and most measurement items related to tourists' sense of safety. Overall, tourists' experienced safety exceeded their expected safety, and tourists generally felt safe while visiting Xiamen.
Safety communication among construction workers is fundamental to effective safety management. However, evidence suggests that poor safety communication is a common problem in construction ...workplaces. In fact, previous research has unveiled a number of systemic barriers to effective safety communication in the construction industry. When workers do not sufficiently communicate relevant safety hazards and appropriate injury prevention measures, unexpected injuries can follow. Therefore, research examining factors that promote or impede effective safety communication is necessary. Towards achieving this goal, the purpose of the current research was to evaluate the effect of safety climate and crew cohesion on the demonstrated safety communication levels. The goal was achieved by gathering empirical data from 57 construction workplaces in the United States. More specifically, the participating construction workplaces were visited, and data pertaining to the safety climate and crew-level cohesion were first collected using questionnaire surveys. Next, a safety communication survey instrument was administered, and the data necessary to compute network density-a social network metric that is indicative of safety communication levels was gathered. The analysis of the data suggested that a positive relationship exists between safety climate and safety communication levels. Likewise, construction crews that demonstrated higher levels of cohesion exhibited superior safety communication levels. Finally, evidence also suggested that a synergetic effect exists between safety climate and crew cohesion in improving safety communication levels.
In their first book, Safety Management Systems in Aviation, Stolzer, Halford, and Goglia provided a strong theoretical framework for SMS, along with a brief discourse on SMS implementation. This ...follow-up book provides a very brief overview of SMS and offers significant guidance and best practices on implementing SMS programs. Very specific guidance is provided by industry experts from government, industry, academia, and consulting, who share their invaluable insights from first-hand experience of all aspects of effective SMS programs.
Coal mine accidents pose a serious threat to miners and the surrounding environment. Despite a recent downward trend in the numbers of major accidents and casualties in Chinese coal mining ...enterprises, accident reoccurrence remains an on-going issue for the industry. This paper aims to identify the root causes, namely, the characteristics of safety culture deficiencies driving typical coal accidents. Using the accident analysis pathway of the 24Model and the logical thought of Why Because Analysis (WBA), 67 typical major accidents (gas explosion, gas outburst, flooding and fire) are analysed to identify the deficiencies in safety culture based on the determinations of the safety culture dimension and statistics of recurrent accident patterns. The related elements and occurrence frequencies of the deficiencies in safety culture can be inferred as follows: ignored safety laws and regulations (frequency is 100 %), unrealized safety priority (100 %), limited role of functional departments (86.6 %), and insufficient attention to safety education for special operation personnel and mining workers (80.6 %), among others. These characteristics are not concerned with accident types, and the most prominent characteristics are manifested in four aspects: unrealized safety priority, flaws in management actions towards safety, passive safety compliance and participation of employees, and imperfect work conditions. Specifically, we emphasize the role of departments, safety communication, safety participation and supervision climate in influencing and improving the safety culture to further reduce industrial accidents.
In Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the
Politics of Safety Governance , Florentine
Koppenborg argues that the regulatory reforms taken up in the wake
of the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, directly ...and
indirectly raised the costs of nuclear power in Japan. The
Nuclear Regulation Authority resisted capture by the nuclear
industry and fundamentally altered the environment for nuclear
policy implementation. Independent safety regulation changed
state-business relations in the nuclear power domain from
regulatory capture to top-down safety regulation, which raised
technical safety costs for electric utilities. Furthermore, the
safety agency's extended emergency preparedness regulations
expanded the allegorical backyard of NIMBY demonstrations.
Antinuclear protests, mainly lawsuits challenging restarts,
incurred additional social acceptance costs. Increasing costs
undermined pronuclear actors' ability to implement nuclear power
policy and caused a rift inside the "nuclear village." Small
nuclear safety administration reforms were, in fact, game changers
for nuclear power politics in Japan.
Koppenborg's findings contribute to the vibrant conversations
about the rise of independent regulatory agencies, crisis as a
mechanism for change, and the role of nuclear power amid global
interest in decarbonizing our energy supply.
•Safety management approaches can be categorised as either a mode of centralised control or a mode of guided adaptability.•Safety professionals and their organisations are focussed on a safety ...management mode of centralised control and this can be detrimental to safety.•Resilience engineering, safety II and safety differently offer an alternative approach to safety management that resolve the shortcomings in traditional approaches to managing safety in complex systems.•This paper provides the first practical description of the purpose, tasks and activities of a safety professional through the theoretical lens of resilience engineering and safety II.
The safety management literature describes two distinct modes through which safety is achieved. These can be described as safety management through centralized control, or safety management through guided adaptability. Safety management through centralized control, labelled by Hollnagel as ‘Safety-I’, aims to align and control the organization and its people through the central determination of what is safe. Safety management through guided adaptability, or ‘Safety-II’, aims to enable the organization and its people to safely adapt to emergent situations and conditions. Safety-II has been presented as a paradigm shift in safety theory, but it has created practical difficulties for safety professional practice. In this paper, we define the two modes of safety management and explain the challenges in changing the role of a safety professional to support Safety-II. When should safety professionals re-enforce alignment, and when should they support frontline adaptations? We outline specific activities for safety professionals to adopt in their role to move towards a guided adaptability mode of safety management. This will move the safety professional further towards their fundamental responsibility – ‘to create foresight about the changing shape of risk, and facilitate action, before people are harmed.’
PDF
