IIT-Delhi developing Smart Monitoring System for persons working at height

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi are developing a Smart Monitoring System (SMS) to detect and alert workers about unsafe conditions while working at height.

Karam Safety Private Limited (KSPL), one of the leading global fall protection companies, and FITT, an industry interface organisation at IIT Delhi, recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard.

"Falls from a height are one of the main causes of serious and fatal workplace accidents. Most of these accidents occur when a worker is wearing the safety gear but forgets to connect it to the anchor point either due to habit or in a hurry to complete work. In order to monitor whether the safety procedure is followed by the worker on height we have proposed an SMS," said Husain Kanchwala, Professor at Centre for Automotive Research and Tribology (CART), IIT Delhi.

"If the worker has not connected the safety gear while working at height, the system will alert the user by audible warning alarm and also communicate to the supervisor and the safety in-charge via an app," he added.

Sunil Jha, Professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Delhi explained that the SMS module will help maintain trackability and record repeated safety violations which can be used for counselling and training.