Literature and industry standards do not mention inclusive guidelines to generate safety recommendations. Following a literature review, we suggest nine design criteria as well as the classification of safety recommendations according to their scope (i.e. organisational context, stakeholders addressed and degree of change) and their focus, the latter corresponding to the type of risk barrier introduced. The design and classification criteria were applied to 625 recommendations published by four aviation investigation agencies. The analysis results suggested sufficient implementation of most of the design criteria. Concerning their scope, the findings showed an emphasis on processes and structures (i.e. lower organisational contexts), adaptations that correspond to medium degree of changes, and local stakeholders. Regarding the focus of the recommendations, non-technical barriers that rely mostly on employees’ interpretation were introduced by the vast majority of safety recommendations. Also, statistically significant differences were detected across investigation authorities and time periods. This study demonstrated how the application of the suggested design and classification frameworks could reveal valuable information about the quality, scope and focus of recommendations. Especially the design criteria could function as a starting point towards the introduction of a common standard to be used at local, national and international levels.
In this document, we provide the methodological background for the Safety atWork project. This document combines several project deliverables as defined inthe overall project plan: validation techniques and methods (D5.1.1), performanceindicators for safety at work (D5.1.2), personal protection equipment methods(D2.1.2), situational awareness methods (D3.1.2), and persuasive technology methods(D4.1.2).
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In this paper we present a review of existing aviation safety metrics and we lay the foundation for our four-years research project entitled “Measuring Safety in Aviation – Developing Metrics for Safety Management Systems”. We reviewed state-of-the-art literature, relevant standards and regulations, and industry practice. We identified that the long-established view on safety as absence of losses has limited the measurement of safety performance to indicators of adverse events (e.g., accident and incident rates). However, taking into account the sparsity of incidents and accidents compared to the amount of aviation operations, and the recent shift from compliance to performance based approach to safety management, the exclusive use of outcomes metrics does not suffice to further improve safety and establish a proactive monitoring of safety performance. Although the academia and aviation industry have recognized the need to use activity indicators for evaluating how safety management processes perform, and various process metrics have been developed, those have not yet become part of safety performance assessment. This is partly attributed to the lack of empirical evidence about the relation between safety proxies and safety outcomes, and the diversity of safety models used to depict safety management processes (i.e. root-cause, epidemiological or systemic models). This, in turn, has resulted to the development of many safety process metrics, which, however, have not been thoroughly tested against the quality criteria referred in literature, such as validity, reliability and practicality.
In the last decade, the automotive industry has seen significant advancements in technology (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles) that presents the opportunity to improve traffic safety, efficiency, and comfort. However, the lack of drivers’ knowledge (such as risks, benefits, capabilities, limitations, and components) and confusion (i.e., multiple systems that have similar but not identical functions with different names) concerning the vehicle technology still prevails and thus, limiting the safety potential. The usual sources (such as the owner’s manual, instructions from a sales representative, online forums, and post-purchase training) do not provide adequate and sustainable knowledge to drivers concerning ADAS. Additionally, existing driving training and examinations focus mainly on unassisted driving and are practically unchanged for 30 years. Therefore, where and how drivers should obtain the necessary skills and knowledge for safely and effectively using ADAS? The proposed KIEM project AMIGO aims to create a training framework for learner drivers by combining classroom, online/virtual, and on-the-road training modules for imparting adequate knowledge and skills (such as risk assessment, handling in safety-critical and take-over transitions, and self-evaluation). AMIGO will also develop an assessment procedure to evaluate the impact of ADAS training on drivers’ skills and knowledge by defining key performance indicators (KPIs) using in-vehicle data, eye-tracking data, and subjective measures. For practical reasons, AMIGO will focus on either lane-keeping assistance (LKA) or adaptive cruise control (ACC) for framework development and testing, depending on the system availability. The insights obtained from this project will serve as a foundation for a subsequent research project, which will expand the AMIGO framework to other ADAS systems (e.g., mandatory ADAS systems in new cars from 2020 onwards) and specific driver target groups, such as the elderly and novice.
Every year the police are confronted with an ever increasing number of complex cases involving missing persons. About 100 people are reported missing every year in the Netherlands, of which, an unknown number become victims of crime, and presumed buried in clandestine graves. Similarly, according to NWVA, several dead animals are also often buried illegally in clandestine graves in farm lands, which may result in the spread of diseases that have significant consequences to other animals and humans in general. Forensic investigators from both the national police (NP) and NWVA are often confronted with a dilemma: speed versus carefulness and precision. However, the current forensic investigation process of identifying and localizing clandestine graves are often labor intensive, time consuming and employ classical techniques, such as walking sticks and dogs (Police), which are not effective. Therefore, there is an urgent request from the forensic investigators to develop a new method to detect and localize clandestine graves quickly, efficiently and effectively. In this project, together with practitioners, knowledge institutes, SMEs and Field labs, practical research will be carried out to devise a new forensic investigation process to identify clandestine graves using an autonomous Crime Scene Investigative (CSI) drone. The new work process will exploit the newly adopted EU-wide drone regulation that relaxes a number of previously imposed flight restrictions. Moreover, it will effectively optimize the available drone and perception technologies in order to achieve the desired functionality, performance and operational safety in detecting/localizing clandestine graves autonomously. The proposed method will be demonstrated and validated in practical operational environments. This project will also make a demonstrable contribution to the renewal of higher professional education. The police and NVWA will be equipped with operating procedures, legislative knowledge, skills and technological expertise needed to effectively and efficiently performed their forensic investigations.
Demografische ontwikkeling stellen de zorg voor grote uitdagingen. Het personeelstekort neemt toe en de zorgvraag zal sterk blijven stijgen. Er is groeiende noodzaak voor automatisering die de zorgprofessional ondersteunt, zoals robots voor logistieke taken in ziekenhuizen (vervoer van bedden/medicijnen/lab-samples,…). Die robots moeten vlot en veilig tussen professionals, zieken en bezoekers door kunnen navigeren. Ze moeten begrijpbaar, geaccepteerd en veilig gedrag vertonen terwijl tegelijkertijd de performance (lees: bezorgtijd) daar niet onder mag lijden. Autonome voertuigen en mobiele robots kunnen al goed functioneren in gestructureerde omgevingen zoals autosnelwegen en afgesloten magazijnen. Het wordt uitdagender bij interactie met mensen die onverwacht gedrag kunnen vertonen. Autonome voertuigen hebben bijvoorbeeld moeite met stadscentra waar voetgangers en fietsers grootschalig verkeerregels overtreden. De automotive sector heeft de SOTIF (Safety-Of-The-Intended-Functionality) standaard geadopteerd. SOTIF onderscheidt ‘safe/unsafe’ en ‘known/unknown’ gebruiksscenario’s en promoot een proces van geautomatiseerd virtueel testen, waarbij een groeiende scenariodatabase zich richt op minimalisatie van unknown en/of unsafe scenario’s. Deze benadering stimuleert continue verbetering van performance en veiligheid en zou ook de interactie van mobiele zorgrobots met mensen sterk kunnen verbeteren. De software tools hiervoor zijn echter duur en momenteel sterk automotive georiënteerd. HAN gebruikt in diverse onderzoeksprojecten de open-source CARLA verkeersimulator. CARLA kan voetgangers simuleren, inclusief de nodige voertuig/robotsensoren voor perceptie van deze voetgangers. Daarbij heeft CARLA support voor OpenSCENARIO, een standaard om gebruiksscenario’s te beschrijven, en een interface met ROS (Robot Operating System), dat door Ambee en HAN wordt gebruikt voor ontwikkeling van robotbesturing. Cybertest onderzoekt bruikbaarheid van CARLA voor indoor zorgtoepassingen, middels creatie van een proof-of-concept van een scenariogebaseerde virtuele verificatie&validatie omgeving, gebruikmakend van CARLA en OpenSCENARIO. Het open-source karakter van CARLA biedt flexibiliteit voor aanpassing richting indoor omgevingen, biedt betaalbaarheid voor het MKB en laat zich flexibel inzetten in het onderwijs.
