Improving Accuracy in Industrial Safety Monitoring: Combine UWB Localization and AI-Based Image Analysis

Industry 4.0 advanced technologies are increasingly used to monitor workers and reduce accident risks to ensure workplace safety. In this paper, we present an on-premise, rule-based safety management system that exploits the fusion of data from an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) and AI-based video analytics to enforce context-aware safety policies. Data fusion from heterogeneous sources is exploited to broaden the set of safety rules that can be enforced and to improve resiliency. Unlike prior work that addresses PPE detection or indoor localization in isolation, the proposed system integrates an UWB-based RTLS with AI-based PPE detection through a rule-based aggregation engine, enabling context-aware safety policies that neither technology can enforce alone. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach and showcase its potential, a proof-of-concept implementation is developed. The implementation is exploited to validate the system, showing sufficient capabilities to process video streams on edge devices and track workers’ positions with sufficient accuracy using a commercial solution. The efficacy of the system is assessed through a set of seven safety rules implemented in a controlled laboratory scenario, showing that the proposed approach enhances situational awareness and robustness, compared with a single-source approach. An extended validation is further employed to confirm practical reliability under more challenging operational conditions, including varying camera perspectives, diverse worker clothing, and real-world outdoor conditions.