Feasibility Study to Preserve the Health of an Industry 4.0 Worker: a Radar System for Monitoring the Sitting-Time

Abstract

In this paper, a feasibility study on a novel sensor to monitor the worker's sitting time for an Industry 4.0 environments is presented.A sedentary job considerably affects the worker's health but at the same time, the dramatic lack of valid aids is well assessed. The proposed sensor is capable of recognizing the presence of an adequate worker's activity, highlighting the movements from the workstation.The sensor is based on a frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar system operating within the 24 GHz industrial, scientific and medical bandwidth. It is able of analyzing the worker's activity in a specific working space by computing its distance and by detecting its motion. The use of radar technology allows to fulfill the expected performance by preserving the individual privacy, in a safe and cost-effective way. This is of particular relevance in the scenario of Industry 4.0 where the human movement is reduced to a minimum due to a more efficient space management and the need of minimizing risks.