Poster: IOT as enabler of workers’ stress detection in manufacturing systems of the future

The proliferation of the industrial digitisation through paradigms such as Industry 4.0 or Industrial Internet of Things have created a more complex work environment for human workers. Even though robots and machines have been created to make workers’ jobs easier and less stressful, work-related stress is still present in industrial environments. In addition to the traditional stressors such as workload or strict deadlines, the constant demand for interaction with robots and machines and the poorly designed and unclear interfaces lead to additional cognitive stress for workers. In this poster, we outline a system based on wearable sensors that can collect and store data relevant to the assessment of workers’ stress. The sensors measure physiological indicators such as heart rate or respiratory rate, as well as geospatial data that includes GPS coordinates and workers’ movement, speed and acceleration. The data generated by the sensors is transmitted to the lightweight on-board unit on the back of the fabrics (T-shirt or bra) and then streamed to the processing unit (Raspberry Pi) via BLE. The collected data will be processed in order to describe the relationships between the stressors and the workers’ health status and behavior.