Classifying tasks performed by electrical line workers using a wrist-worn sensor: A data analytic approach

Abstract

Electrical line workers (ELWs) experience harsh environments, characterized by long shifts, remote operations, and potentially risky tasks. Wearables present an opportunity for unobtrusive monitoring of productivity and safety. A prerequisite to monitoring is the automated identification of the tasks being performed. Human activity recognition has been widely used for classification for activities of daily living. However, the literature is limited for electrical line maintenance/repair tasks due to task variety and complexity. We investigated how features can be engineered from a single wrist-worn accelerometer for the purpose of classifying ELW tasks. Specifically, three classifiers were investigated across three feature sets (time, frequency, and time-frequency) and two window lengths (4 and 10 seconds) to identify ten common ELW tasks. Based on data from 37 participants in a lab environment, two application scenarios were evaluated: (a) intra-subject, where individualized models were trained and deployed for each worker; and (b) inter-subject, where data was pooled to train a general model that can be deployed for new workers. Accuracies ≥ 93% were achieved for both scenarios, and increased to ≥96% with 10-second windows. Overall and class-specific feature importance were computed, and the impact of those features on the obtained predictions were explained. This work will contribute to the future risk mitigation of ELWs using wearables.

Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction in electrical utility workers: Practical considerations for prevention and rehabilitation in the workplace

“…To date, limited research has investigated musculoskeletal pain and discomfort in electrical utility workers, despite the significance of the electrical utilities industry and its workers to the global energy supply. The reliable delivery of energy plays a significant role in a country's economic development and is used as a metric to assess a developed nation's infrastructure (Ragani Lamooki et al, 2022). Electrical utility workers are responsible for the designing, planning, construction, and maintenance of electrical infrastructure that supports the provision of reliable energy.…”