Monitoring workers through wearable transceivers for improving work safety

In this paper we present a wireless monitoring system for increasing work safety of people working alone. The main component of the system is a wearable transceiver including movement sensors, the so called GALILE device. GALILE detects potential emergency situations automatically and sends an alert to an emergency monitoring center. The worker carrying GALILE is also given the option to trigger an alarm by pressing a button placed on the device. For wireless communication, ZigBee standards are considered. A Zigbee network consisting of several routers and a gateway are collecting GALILE data and forwarding these data to the security center, where it is visualized through an application software providing a visual interface. The system also gives vital information about the location of the worker in emergency.