Safety++: Designing IoT and Wearable Systems for Industrial Safety through a User Centered Design Approach

In this paper, we describe Safety++, an IoT ecosystem of connected wearable elements aimed at improving safety in the workplace in the energy industry. Safety is a major concern for energy companies and, despite the large availability of protective equipment and the adoption of strict safety procedures, it still remains a problem. Unsafe behavior is the main cause of incidents and is not addressed by current solutions. We exploit advancements in IoT and wearable computing to design, build and test a platform aimed at improving awareness, peer supervision and emergency fast response in the workplace. We do this by following a user centered design approach, which takes into consideration the user needs and actual experience, in order to increase also the solution's acceptability and adoption. Results demonstrate that focusing on real time feedback, awareness and peer communication in IoT systems can reinforce safe practices and attitudes and lead to a safer environment in energy companies.