Personal protective equipment (PPE) with analytical stream processing for safety event detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11689833-B2
Application number	US-202217660660-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2022
Priority date	Jun 23, 2016
Publication date	Jun 27, 2023
Grant date	Jun 27, 2023

Abstract

In some examples, a system includes an article of personal protective equipment (PPE) having at least one sensor configured to generate a stream of usage data; and an analytical stream processing component comprising: a communication component that receives the stream of usage data; a memory configured to store at least a portion of the stream of usage data and at least one model for detecting a safety event signature, wherein the at least one model is trained based as least in part on a set of usage data generated by one or more other articles of PPE of a same type as the article of PPE; and one or more computer processors configured to: detect the safety event signature in the stream of usage data based on processing the stream of usage data with the model, and generate an output in response to detecting the safety event signature.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
an article of fall protection personal protective equipment (FPPPE) having at least one sensor configured to generate usage data, the at least one sensor being of a type selected from the following group of sensors: extension sensor, tension sensor, accelerometer, location sensor, position sensor, and altimeter;
a communication component that receives the usage data from the at least one sensor of the article of FPPPE;
a memory configured to store at least a portion of the usage data and at least one model for detecting a safety event signature indicative of an occurrence of a safety event, wherein the at least one model is based at least in part on a set of usage data generated, prior to receiving the usage data from the at least one sensor, by one or more other articles of FPPPE of a same type as the article of FPPPE; and
one or more computer processors configured to:
detect the safety event signature indicative of the occurrence of the safety event in the usage data based on processing the usage data with the model, and
perform at least one operation in response to detecting the safety event signature.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computer processors: select a training set comprising a set of training instances, each training instance
comprising an association between respective usage data over a defined time duration and a respective safety event, wherein the respective usage data comprise one or more metrics that characterize at least one of a user, a work environment, or one or more articles of FPPPE; and
for each training instance in the training set, modify, based on particular usage data over the defined time duration and a particular safety event of the training instance, the model to change a likelihood predicted by the model for the particular safety event signature associated with the particular safety event in response to subsequent usage data over the defined time duration applied to the model.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein one or more training instances of the set of training instances are generated from use of one or more articles of FPPPE after the one or more computer processors detect the safety event signature.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the safety event signature comprises at least one of an anomaly in the usage data from the at least one sensor, a pattern in the usage data from the at least one sensor, a particular set of occurrences of particular events over a defined period of time, a particular set of types of particular events over a defined period of time, a particular set of magnitudes of particular events over a defined period of time, or a value that satisfies a threshold.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the safety event signature is mapped to a safety event, wherein the safety event is associated with at least one of a worker, the article of FPPPE, an article of personal protective equipment (PPE) other than the article of FPPPE, or a work environment.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein to perform the at least one operation, the one or more computer processors send a notification to at least one of the article of FPPPE, a hub associated with a user and configured to communicate with the article of FPPPE, or a remote computing device.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein to perform the at least one operation, the one or more computer processors output for display a user interface that indicates the safety event in association with at least one of a user, work environment, or the article of FPPPE.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computer processors are included in the article of FPPPE.

9. A computing device comprising:
one or more computer processors that receive usage data from at least one sensor of an article of fall protection personal protective equipment (FPPPE), wherein the article of FPPPE has the at least one sensor configured to generate the stream of usage data, the at least one sensor being of a type selected from the following group of sensors: extension sensor, tension sensor, accelerometer, location sensor, position sensor, and altimeter;
a memory configured to store at least a portion of the usage data and at least one model for detecting a safety event signature indicative of an occurrence of a safety event, wherein the at least one model is based at least in part on a set of usage data generated,
prior to receiving the usage data from the at least one sensor, by one or more other articles of FPPPE of a same type as the article of FPPPE; and
one or more computer processors configured to:
detect the safety event signature indicative of the occurrence of the safety event in the usage data based on processing the usage data with the model, and
perform at least one operation in response to detecting the safety event

signature.

10. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to:
select a training set comprising a set of training instances, each training instance comprising an association between respective usage data over a defined time duration and a respective safety event, wherein the respective usage data comprise one or more metrics that characterize at least one of a user, a work environment, or one or more articles of FPPPE; and
for each training instance in the training set, modify, based on particular usage data over the defined time duration and a particular safety event of the training instance, the model to change a likelihood predicted by the model for the particular safety event signature associated with the particular safety event in response to subsequent usage data over the defined time duration applied to the model.

11. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein one or more training instances of the set of training instances are generated from use of one or more articles of FPPPE after the one or more computer processors detect the safety event signature.

12. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the safety event signature comprises at least one of an anomaly in the usage data from the at least one sensor, a pattern in the usage data from the at least one sensor, a particular set of occurrences of particular events over a defined period of time, a particular set of types of particular events over a defined period of time, a particular set of magnitudes of particular events over a defined period of time, or a value that satisfies a threshold.

13. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the safety event signature is mapped to a safety event, wherein the safety event is associated with at least one of a
worker, the article of FPPPE, an article of personal protective equipment (PPE) other than the article of FPPPE, or a work environment.

14. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein to perform the at least one operation, the one or more computer processors send a notification to at least one of the article of FPPPE, a hub associated with a user and configured to communicate with the article of FPPPE, or a remote computing device.

15. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein to perform the at least one operation, the one or more computer processors output for display a user interface that indicates the safety event in association with at least one of a user, work environment, or the article of FPPPE.

16. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the one or more computer processors are included in the article of FPPPE.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor of a computi

Assignees

• 3M Innovative Properties Company

Inventors

• Awiszus Steven T
• Lobner Eric C
• Wurm Michael G
• Kanukurthy Kiran S
• Hu Jia
• Blackford Matthew J
• Mattson Keith G
• Jesme Ronald D
• Anderson Nathan J

Classifications

• G06F16/24568

  Data stream processing; Continuous queries · CPC title

• A61F9/06 Primary

  Masks, shields or hoods for welders · CPC title

• A62B9/00

  Component parts for respiratory or breathing apparatus (A62B19/00, A62B21/00, A62B23/00 take precedence) · CPC title

• H04Q9/00 Primary

  Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom · CPC title

• A62B99/00

  Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass · CPC title