Measures of orienting response for improving safety training

Abstract

© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London. Effective safety training is very important for workers’ safety. Most of the fatal events would have been prevented if only workers had received proper training. Safety training is not always effective and appropriate, sometimes may even be the source of accident. We propose Electrodermal Activity (EDA) recording, for the purpose to capture trainees’ autonomous system response, during their training tasks. EDA is based on the skin electrical phenomena controlled by the sympathetic nervous system and therefore autonomous. Although it is a century old method, nowadays, has the possibility to be used for new purposes, which demand movement and flexibility, thanks to the advances of wireless technology. EDA has demonstrated to relate discomfort and cognitive status to specific biosignals, thus, it can be a valid tool for deeply understanding the trainees’ status during their cognitive tasks. In terms of safety training we proposed and implemented a mobile and stand-alone equipment, especially developed for educational purposes. This safeguarding modern equipment includes various and independent safety devices like opto-electronic protective, electro-mechanical, non-contact safety switches and advanced safety controllers. The present study measures trainees’ Electrodermal activity during their practice/training on the safety equipment. The study focuses on the correlation of Electrodermal biosignals and the trainees’ reaction, in particular cases of orienting response during handling the safety devices for different types of tasks and requests. This study will be the first attempt to relate psychophysical status under predicted and unpredicted tasks during safety training. The output can be used for safety officers’ estimation psychophysical status during emergency situations.