TWI891399B - Method and system for monitoring working at height - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring working at height is provided. The method creates an image by photographing a working area, analyzes the image to obtain a worker image block corresponding to a worker and a rope image block set corresponding to a safety rope set, determines whether the worker uses the safety rope set in accordance with a distance between the worker image block and the rope image block set and generates a determination result accordingly, and generates an indication information in accordance with the determination result.

Description

High-altitude work monitoring method and system

The present invention relates to a high-altitude work monitoring technology, and more particularly to a high-altitude work monitoring method and system for determining whether high-altitude workers are properly utilizing safety ropes.

According to legal regulations, workers working at heights higher than 2 meters must wear helmets, safety belts, and other necessary protective gear, or install safety nets and other protective measures in the workplace. However, in current workplaces, ensuring these protective measures are properly implemented relies on physical oversight. If these protective measures are not properly implemented and are not promptly detected, the personal safety of workers working at height cannot be fully guaranteed.

Therefore, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a method and system for monitoring high-altitude work to automatically determine whether workers are properly utilizing the safety rope assembly.

From one perspective, the present invention provides a method for monitoring high-altitude work, comprising: photographing a work area to obtain an image to be judged; analyzing the image to be judged to identify a personnel image block corresponding to the worker; analyzing the judgment image to identify a safety rope image block group corresponding to a safety rope group; generating a corresponding first judgment result based on the distance between the personnel image block and the safety rope image block group; and generating a first prompt message based on the first judgment result.

In one embodiment, the safety rope assembly includes at least one safety rope, and the safety rope image block assembly includes at least one safety rope image block that corresponds one-to-one to the aforementioned safety rope. In this case, the step of generating a corresponding first judgment result based on the distance between the personnel image block and the safety rope image block assembly includes: calculating the human rope distance between the personnel image block and each safety rope image block; and when all human rope distances are greater than a preset length, determining that the worker is not using the safety rope assembly and generating the aforementioned first judgment result accordingly.

In one embodiment, when calculating the human rope distance, the distance between the edge of the person image block and the edge of the safety rope image block corresponding to the human rope distance is calculated.

In one embodiment, the aforementioned high-altitude work monitoring method further includes: selecting a safety rope image block corresponding to the portion of the safety rope being used by the worker; determining whether the safety rope corresponding to the selected safety rope image block provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block and generating a corresponding second determination result; and generating a second prompt message based on the second determination result.

In one embodiment, the step of determining whether the safety rope corresponding to the selected safety rope image block provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block and generating a corresponding second determination result includes: calculating a horizontal angle between the corresponding safety rope and the horizontal direction based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image; and determining that the safety rope does not provide sufficient safety when the horizontal angle is less than the safety angle, and generating a corresponding second determination result.

In one embodiment, the step of determining whether the safety rope corresponding to the selected safety rope image block provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block and generating a corresponding second determination result further includes: when the horizontal angle is not less than the safety angle, calculating the length of the safety rope, and if the length of the safety rope is greater than the safety length, determining that the safety rope does not provide sufficient safety, and generating a corresponding second determination result.

In one embodiment, the aforementioned high-altitude work monitoring method further sets the range of the work area before photographing the work area.

From another perspective, the present invention provides a high-altitude work monitoring system characterized by comprising a camera, an image analysis and processing device, and a reminder device. The camera is adapted to photograph the work area to generate an image to be judged. The image analysis and processing device is electrically coupled to the camera to receive the image to be judged. The device analyzes the image to be judged to identify a personnel image block corresponding to a worker and a safety rope image block group corresponding to a safety rope group. The device then generates a corresponding first judgment result based on the distance between the personnel image block and the safety rope image block group. The reminder device is electrically coupled to the image analysis and processing device to receive the first judgment result and generate a first prompt message based on the first judgment result.

In one embodiment, the aforementioned safety rope assembly includes at least one safety rope, and the safety rope image block assembly includes at least one safety rope image block. Each safety rope image block corresponds one-to-one to the aforementioned at least one safety rope. The image analysis and processing device calculates the human rope distance between the personnel image block and each safety rope image block. If all human rope distances are greater than a preset length, the device determines that the worker is not using the safety rope assembly and generates a corresponding first judgment result.

In one embodiment, the image analysis and processing device selects a safety rope image block corresponding to a safety rope used by a worker and, based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block, determines whether the safety rope corresponding to the selected safety rope image block provides sufficient safety and generates a corresponding second judgment result. The reminder device receives this second judgment result and generates a second prompt message based on the second judgment result.

By employing the aforementioned technology, the high-altitude work monitoring method and system provided by the present invention can automatically analyze images captured from the workplace to determine whether workers are properly using safety ropes. It can also promptly issue a warning signal if safety ropes are not being used or if there are issues with their use. This effectively reduces the manpower required to monitor safety rope use and, at the same time, effectively increases worker safety.

10: High-altitude work monitoring system

100: Photography equipment

110: Image Analysis and Processing Device

110a: Edge device

110b: Background device

120: Reminder device

150, 350: Working area

310, 312, 600: Safety rope

320, 322, 610: Safety rope image area

330: Staff

340: Personnel image block

DET1: First judgment result

DET2: Second judgment result

H1: Height of the safety rope image area

IMG: Image pending judgment

POS: Position information

S200-S240: Implementation steps of the high-altitude work monitoring method according to one embodiment of the present invention

S400-S420: Implementation steps of the high-altitude work monitoring method according to another embodiment of the present invention

S500~S550: Detailed steps of an embodiment of the present invention when implementing step S410

SI: Image block size

W1: Width of the safety rope image area

θ: horizontal angle

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a high-altitude work monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a flow chart of a method for monitoring high-altitude operations according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an image to be judged and the image block obtained after image analysis according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a flow chart of a method for monitoring high-altitude operations according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG5 is a detailed flow chart of the process of executing step S410 according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram showing the angle between the safety rope and the horizontal direction according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of an image analysis and processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

To ensure clarity and understanding for those skilled in the art, it is important to note that the term "electrically coupled" used below means that electronic signals can be transmitted between two electrically coupled objects. Unless otherwise specified, electronic signal transmission can be done wired or wirelessly, and can be unidirectional or bidirectional.

Please refer to Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a high-altitude work monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the high-altitude work monitoring system 10 includes a camera 100, an image analysis and processing device 110, and a reminder device 120. The camera 100 is electrically coupled to the image analysis and processing device 110 so that electronic data captured by the camera 100 can be transmitted to the image analysis and processing device 110. The image analysis and processing device 110 is further electrically coupled to the reminder device 120 so that electronic data generated by the image analysis and processing device 110 can be transmitted to the reminder device 120.

The following combines Figures 1 and 2 to illustrate the technology provided by the present invention in detail. Figure 2 is a flow chart of a method for monitoring high-altitude work according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in Figures 1 and 2, a camera 100 first captures a work area 150 to generate a corresponding image IMG to be determined (step S200). The image IMG generated by the camera 100 is transmitted to the image analysis and processing device 110. The image analysis and processing device 110 then utilizes existing image analysis technology to identify, from the image IMG to be determined, a worker image block corresponding to the worker (step S210) and a safety rope image block group corresponding to the safety rope group (step S220).

It is worth noting that the operator can pre-mark the work area with a specific object, or set the scope of the work area from the captured image before shooting, or adjust the position of the work area on the image analysis and processing device 110 as needed. The present invention does not limit this. In addition, during the image analysis process in step S210 to obtain the personnel image block, a screening process based on the size of the personnel image block can be added to determine whether the corresponding personnel image block is using the safety rope. Specifically, because the captured image may include workers who are remote but appear to be within the work area due to spatial perspective, these remote workers should be excluded when determining whether they are using the safety rope to avoid misjudgment in step S230. To achieve this, the size of the found worker image block can be compared with a preset size in step S210. If the size of the found worker image block is smaller than the preset size, it indicates that the worker corresponding to this worker image block is likely remote. Therefore, this worker image block can be excluded from the subsequent determination in step S230.

Please also refer to FIG. 3 , which is a schematic diagram of an image to be determined and the image blocks obtained after image analysis according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the work area 350 within the image to be determined includes a worker 330 and two safety ropes 310 and 312, wherein safety ropes 310 and 312 constitute the aforementioned safety rope set. After image analysis by the image analysis and processing device 110 , the image analysis and processing device 110 not only obtains a worker image block 340 corresponding to worker 330 from the image to be determined shown in FIG. 3 , but also obtains a safety rope image block set corresponding to the safety rope set. In this embodiment, the safety rope set includes safety ropes 310 and 312, and the safety rope image block set includes safety rope image block 320 corresponding to safety rope 310 and safety rope image block 322 corresponding to safety rope 312. In one embodiment, the image analysis operation of the image analysis and processing device 110 may be performed via an object detection neural network (such as CenterNet or CornerNet), but the present invention is not limited thereto.

After obtaining the aforementioned image blocks, the image analysis and processing device 110 calculates the distance between the personnel image block 340 and the safety rope image block set. Based on the calculated distance, it determines whether the worker 330 has used the safety rope set and generates a corresponding first judgment result (step S230).

Specifically, the image analysis and processing device 110 can perform the aforementioned distance calculation operation by calculating the distance between the person image block 340 and each of the safety rope image blocks 320 and 322 in the safety rope image block group (hereinafter referred to as the human rope distance). In different embodiments, technicians may adopt different benchmarks to calculate the aforementioned human rope distances based on actual needs. Such variations do not affect the normal operation of the technology provided by the present invention. For example, the distance between the center points of the image blocks can be selected as the human rope distance, or the distance between the boundaries of two image blocks can be selected as the human rope distance.

After calculating the man-rope distance, the image analysis and processing device 110 can determine whether worker 330 has used the safety rope assembly based on the calculated man-rope distance and a pre-set length. A common, simple determination method is to determine that worker 330 has not used the safety rope corresponding to the man-rope distance if the man-rope distance is greater than the preset length. Alternatively, if the man-rope distance corresponding to each safety rope in the safety rope assembly is greater than the preset length, it indicates that worker 330 has not used the safety rope assembly. The default length used in the judgment process can be 0, meaning that worker 330 is deemed to have used the safety rope only when the person image block and the safety rope image block are adjacent to or even partially overlap. Of course, the judgment method used here is not limited to the simple one described above. Those skilled in the art may also employ more complex methods to determine whether worker 330 has used the safety rope assembly, and this invention does not impose any limitation on this.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the relative positional relationship between the target object (worker or safety rope) and the corresponding image block (personnel image block or safety rope image block) may vary depending on the type of image analysis method selected. Therefore, although in the embodiment shown in FIG3 , the positional relationship between the target object and the image block corresponding to the analyzed target object is based on the smallest rectangle enclosing the target object as the image block corresponding to the target object, when different image analysis methods are used to analyze images, image blocks of different sizes or shapes may be obtained for the same target object shown in FIG3 . In this regard, those skilled in the art can easily combine the techniques provided by this invention with the results obtained from different image analysis methods to enable the entire system to function properly by simply following the technical principles described in the previous embodiments. Excessive and complex explanations are omitted here.

Continuing from the above, it can be seen from FIG3 that the personnel image block 340 and the safety rope image block 322 partially overlap. Therefore, in this embodiment, the worker 330 is determined to have used the safety rope 312.

Referring again to Figures 1 and 2 , after determining that a worker has used a particular safety rope, the image analysis and processing device 110 may output a first determination result DET1 to maintain the reminder device 120 in a normal state. Alternatively, the image analysis and processing device 120 may directly not generate or output the first determination result DET1 to the reminder device 120, thereby reducing unnecessary hardware computing power and network traffic. Conversely, if the worker is determined not to have used any of the safety ropes in the set, the image analysis and processing device 110 may generate a second first determination result DET1. Upon receiving the second first determination result DET1, the reminder device 120 generates a first prompt message based on the received second first determination result DET1 (step S240). The first prompt message can be presented in various ways based on different needs, such as displaying specific text, adding a special mark on the display screen, or generating a specific sound effect, etc. This is not a limitation of the present invention.

It is worth noting that in order to avoid occasional misjudgment and improper triggering of prompt information, the aforementioned first prompt information can be set to be triggered only when the second first judgment result DET1 exceeds a predetermined number within a predetermined period of time. In other words, in one embodiment, the designer can configure trigger logic on the reminder device 120 to trigger a reminder message only when the second type of first judgment result DET1 is received more than a predetermined number of times within a predetermined period of time. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the designer can configure trigger logic in the image analysis and processing device 110 to only send the second type of first judgment result DET1 to the reminder device 120 to trigger a reminder message only when the number of results indicating that the worker has not used the safety rope exceeds a predetermined number within a predetermined period of time.

Furthermore, after determining that a worker has used a safety rope, the image analysis and processing device 110 can further confirm whether the safety rope used by the worker can provide sufficient safety.

Please refer to Figure 4, which is a flow chart of a method for monitoring high-altitude work according to an embodiment of the present invention. The operation process of steps S200 to S240 in this embodiment is substantially the same as that of the embodiment shown in Figure 2 and will not be repeated here. This embodiment differs from the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 in that, after determining in step S230 that a worker has used a particular safety rope, the first determination result DET1 output by the image analysis and processing device 110 not only maintains the reminder device 120 in a normal state but also triggers step S400 for further operation. Alternatively, after determining in step S230 that a worker has used a particular safety rope, the image analysis and processing device 110 may not generate or output the first determination result DET1 to the reminder device 120, but still proceed to step S400 for further operation.

It should be noted that regardless of which of the above methods is used to advance the process to step S400, it indicates that the image analysis and processing device 110 has determined that a worker has indeed used a safety rope. Therefore, in step S400, the image analysis and processing device 110 selects the safety rope image block corresponding to the used safety rope. It then further determines whether the safety rope provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block, generating a corresponding second judgment result (step S410).

Please refer to Figure 5, which is a detailed flow chart of step S410 according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block is first calculated (step S500). Then, based on the calculated aspect ratio, the horizontal angle between the safety rope and the horizontal direction corresponding to this safety rope image block is obtained using inverse trigonometric functions (step S505). As shown in Figure 6, when the width of safety rope image block 610 corresponding to safety rope 600 is W1 and the height is H1, the horizontal angle θ between safety rope 600 and the horizontal direction can be calculated based on the ratio of W1 to H1 and the inverse trigonometric function.

After calculating the horizontal angle in step S505, the process proceeds to step S510 to determine whether the horizontal angle is less than the safety angle. When a worker is working at the same height, the longer the safety rope is stretched (i.e., the farther the worker is from the rope's anchor point), the smaller the horizontal angle. Therefore, if the horizontal angle is less than the safety angle, it is highly likely that the safety rope is stretched too long and cannot provide sufficient tension to prevent the worker from falling. Therefore, when the judgment result of step S510 is yes, in this embodiment, it is determined that this safety rope cannot temporarily provide sufficient safety to prevent the worker from falling to the ground, and thus the first second judgment result DET2 is generated (step S520).

On the other hand, if the determination result of step S510 is negative, in some embodiments, the safety rope is deemed to provide sufficient safety and subsequent operations may be performed. Alternatively, in this embodiment, the safety rope length may be further calculated to ensure that the safety rope provides sufficient safety. In this embodiment, if the determination result of step S510 is negative, the process proceeds to step S530 to determine whether the safety rope length is greater than a preset safety length. The determination criteria here require the actual length of the safety rope. This actual length can be obtained in a variety of ways, such as by calculating the ratio between the safety rope's size in the image and other objects of known size, or by marking the safety rope to indicate the length it has been extended. If the result of step S530 is yes, the process proceeds to step S540 to generate a second type of second determination result, DET2, based on the possibility that the safety rope may be too long to provide sufficient tension to prevent the worker from falling. Conversely, if the result of step S530 is no, the process proceeds to step S550 to generate a third type of second determination result, DET2.

Please return to Figure 4. After the second determination result to be generated in step S410 is determined in steps S500-S550 through the above method, the reminder device 120 can generate a corresponding second prompt message based on the received second determination result (step S420). For example, upon receiving the first or second second determination result DET2, the reminder device 120 can use the second prompt message to indicate that the safety rope is suspected of being overstretched. Conversely, upon receiving the third second determination result DET2, the reminder device 120 can remain inactive or use the second prompt message to indicate that the safety rope is currently within the normal operating range. Of course, the second prompt can also be triggered only when the same second judgment result occurs more than a preset number of times within a preset time period. The specific method is similar to the previous description of triggering the first prompt and will not be elaborated here.

Referring also to FIG. 7 , in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , the image analysis and processing device 110 includes an edge device 110 a and a background device 110 b. The edge device 110 a can be electrically coupled to the background device 110 b via a wired or wireless connection. The edge device 110 a receives the image to be judged IMG from the camera 100 and performs image analysis to obtain a person image block 340 and a safety rope image block 320 / 322. The edge device 110 a then transmits position information (e.g., pixel coordinates) POS of the person image block 340 and the safety rope image block 320 / 322 in the image to be judged, or the image block size SI of the safety rope image block 320 / 322, to the background device 110 b. Next, the backend device 110b can calculate the distance between the personnel image block 340 and the safety rope image block set based on the position information POS. Based on the calculated distance, it can determine whether the worker 330 is using the safety rope set and generate a corresponding first determination result DET1. Alternatively, it can calculate whether the safety rope can provide sufficient tension to prevent a fall based on the image block size SI and generate a corresponding second determination result DET2.

In summary, the high-altitude work monitoring method and system provided by the present invention can automatically analyze images captured from the workplace to determine whether workers are properly using safety ropes. It can also promptly issue a warning signal if safety ropes are not being used or if there are issues with the use of safety ropes. This effectively reduces the manpower required to monitor safety rope use and effectively increases worker safety.

S200-S240: Implementation steps of the high-altitude work monitoring method according to one embodiment of the present invention

Claims (8)

A method for monitoring high-altitude work, suitable for being executed by a high-altitude work monitoring system to confirm whether a worker is using a safety rope set, wherein the safety rope set includes at least one safety rope, and is characterized by comprising: photographing a work area to obtain a to-be-judged image; analyzing the to-be-judged image to find a person image block corresponding to the worker; analyzing the judgment image to find a safety rope image block group corresponding to the safety rope set, wherein the safety rope image block group includes at least one safety rope image block, and the at least one safety rope image block is paired with The system includes: selecting the at least one safety rope; generating a first judgment result corresponding to the distance between the personnel image block and the safety rope image block group; generating a first prompt message based on the first judgment result; selecting the safety rope image block corresponding to the person being used by the worker in the at least one safety rope; determining whether the safety rope corresponding to the selected safety rope image block provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block and generating a corresponding second judgment result; and generating a second prompt message based on the second judgment result. The method for monitoring high-altitude work as described in claim 1, wherein the step of generating the corresponding first judgment result based on the distance between the personnel image block and the safety rope image block set includes: calculating the human rope distance between the personnel image block and each of the at least one safety rope image block; and when all of the human rope distances are greater than a preset length, determining that the worker is not using the safety rope set and generating the first judgment result accordingly. The method for monitoring aerial work as described in claim 2, wherein the distance to the human rope is calculated by calculating the distance between the edge of the person image block and the edge of the at least one safety rope image block corresponding to the distance to the human rope. The method for monitoring aerial work as described in claim 2, wherein the step of determining whether the safety rope corresponding to the selected safety rope image block provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block and generating the corresponding second determination result includes: calculating a horizontal angle between the corresponding safety rope and the horizontal direction based on the selected aspect ratio of the safety rope image; and determining that the safety rope does not provide sufficient safety when the horizontal angle is less than a safety angle, and generating the corresponding second determination result. The method for monitoring aerial work as described in claim 4, wherein the step of determining whether the safety rope corresponding to the selected safety rope image block provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block and generating the corresponding second determination result further includes: when the horizontal angle is not less than the safety angle, calculating the length of the safety rope, and if the length of the safety rope is greater than a safety length, determining that the safety rope does not provide sufficient safety, and generating the corresponding second determination result. The method for monitoring high-altitude work as described in claim 1 further includes: setting the range of the work area before photographing the work area. A high-altitude work monitoring system is suitable for confirming whether a worker is using a safety rope set, the safety rope set including at least one safety rope, and is characterized by comprising: a camera device, suitable for photographing a work area to generate an image to be judged; an image analysis and processing device, electrically coupled to the camera device to receive the image to be judged, the image analysis and processing device analyzing the image to be judged to find a person image block corresponding to the worker and a safety rope image block group corresponding to the safety rope set, wherein the safety rope image block group includes at least one safety rope image block, the at least one safety rope image block corresponds one-to-one to the at least one safety rope, and the The image analysis and processing device further generates a corresponding first judgment result based on the distance between the personnel image block and the safety rope image block group, selects the safety rope image block corresponding to the person being used by the worker in the at least one safety rope, and determines whether the corresponding safety rope provides sufficient safety based on the aspect ratio of the selected safety rope image block, thereby generating a corresponding second judgment result. A reminder device is electrically coupled to the image analysis and processing device to receive the first judgment result and the second judgment result, and generates a first prompt message based on the first judgment result and a second prompt message based on the second judgment result. The high-altitude work monitoring system of claim 7, wherein the image analysis and processing device calculates the distance between the worker image block and each of the at least one safety rope image block, and when all of the distances are greater than a preset length, determines that the worker is not using the safety rope assembly and generates the first judgment result accordingly.