A+A 2019

••• 10••• Innovationen Condair Systems präsentiert auf der A+A Luftbefeuch- tungslösungen, die die Gesundheit und Leistungsfä- higkeit von Mitarbeitern am Arbeitsplatz fördern. Erkrankungen des Atemsystems und des Stimmap- parates gehören zu den häufigsten Ursachen für Ar- beitsunfähigkeit im Büro. Insbesondere im Winter kommt es vermehrt zu Grippewellen, Stimmstörun- gen und anderen Infektionen der Atemwege. Aktuelle Untersuchungen zeigen, dass die Lebensdauer von Vi- ren und die eigene Immunabwehr direkt von der Luft- feuchte im Raum abhängen. Das Fraunhofer-Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation (IAO) Stutt- gart konnte belegen, dass eine optimale Luftfeuch- tigkeit am Arbeitsplatz gesundheitliche Belastungen reduziert und das Wohlbefinden erhöht. Direkt-Raum- luftbefeuchtungsanlagen sichern permanent eine op- timale relative Luftfeuchte von 40 Prozent bis 50 Pro- zent und eignen sich besonders zur Nachrüstung in Bestandsgebäuden. Die Condair Systems GmbH stellt in Düsseldorf aktuelle Hochdruck-Luftbefeuchtungs- systeme für unterschiedliche Raumgrößen vor, die hinsichtlich der Hygienestandards alle Anforderungen der Gesetzlichen Unfallversicherung (DGUV) erfüllen und zusätzlich nach VDI 6022 Blatt 6 zertifiziert sind. Besucher erleben die neuesten Luftbefeuchtungssys- teme live in der Halle 10, Stand F38 und auf dem Stand des Deutschen Netzwerks Büro (DNB)in der Halle 10, Stand D32. Pr vention durch optimale Luftbefeuchtung Virtual reality improves safety A recent study shows how VR can be used to improve employee safety A new study suggests employ- ee safety could be improved through use of Virtual Reality (VR) in Health and Safety training, such as fire evacuation drills. The Human Factors Research Group at the University of Nottingham, developed an immersive VR sys- tem to stimulate participants’ perception of temperature, and senses of smell, sight and hearing to explore how they behaved dur- ing two health and safety training scenarios: an emergency evacu- ation in the event of a fire and a fuel leak. In one scenario, par- ticipants had to evacuate from a virtual fire in an office, seeing and hearing using a VR headset but could also feel heat from three 2kW heaters, and could smell smoke from a scent diffuser, cre- ating a multisensory virtual en- vironment. This group was com- pared against another group who were observed in this scenario using only audio-visual elements of VR. The Nottingham research, fund- ed by the Institution of Occupa- tional Safety and Health (IOSH), found contrasts between the groups in the way participants reacted to the scenario. Those in the multi-sensory group had a greater sense of urgency, re- flecting a real-life scenario, and were more likely to avoid the virtual fires. Evidence from the audio-visual participants sug- gested that they were treating the experience more like a game and behaviours were less consist- ent with those expected in a real world situation. Dr Glyn Lawson, Associate Profes- sor in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, said: “Health and safety training can fail to motivate and engage em- ployees and can lack relevance to real-life contexts. Our research, which has been funded by the In- stitution of Occupational Safety and Health, suggests that virtual environments can help address these issues, by increasing train- ees’ engagement and willingness to participate in further training.” VR is a new and efficient training tool. Photo: University of Nottingham The LiDAR sensors de- veloped at Fraunhofer IMS are characterized by their high immunity to ambient light even under changing lighting con- ditions. Together with their clear 3-dimensional coverage of the environ- ment, they thus provide a reliable basis for safe human-robot cooperati- on. In autonomous dri- ving, LiDAR (Light Detec- tion And Ranging) is a core technology for real-time, 3-dimensional capture of the environment. However, this technology is not limited to this application only. If the proximity to autonomous driving is still easily recognizable in lawn mowing and vacuum cleaning robots or in autonomous mobile robots in warehou- ses, this is already more difficult with stationary ro- bots in industrial production. But even here, it must be avoided that the robot collides with other objects or people in its movements. So far, the robots are placed in cages for this purpose or monitored their environment with photoelectric sensors to safely separate humans and robots from each other. How- ever, if humans and robots work together hand-in- hand (collaborative robots), such a strict separation is no longer possible. LiDAR can also be used here to record the environment in real-time 3-D and thus to match the movements of the robot to people in its environment. LiDAR sensors in human-robot- collaborations For a safe work environ- ment Photo: Franck V. / Unsplash