Harmonious Safety - Collaboration, Cooperation and Coordination between Workers, Machines and Environments

With the development of IoT, AI and ICT technology, the working style of field persons is changing. For example, there are a collaborative working robot in which a human and a machine coexist, and a power assist suit that supports care work. When introducing such new technologies, conventional safety technology and occupational safety and health management (OSHM) concepts are not enough, thus new safety concepts are needed. Focusing on the workers, machines, and management environment that make up the workplace, we must reconsider the collaboration between workers and machines, the cooperation between workers and the environment, and the coordination between machines and the environment. With the use of ICT, these relationships can be realized precisely, quickly and completely. In order to achieve a more advanced safety technology and culture, it is necessary to harmonize people, machines and the environment. In this paper, we propose the concept of “harmonious safety” and its technical aspects.