Augmented reality and portable devices to increase safety in container terminals: the testing of A4S project in the port of Genoa

Port container terminals are intrinsically complex environments and the human factor is often the main cause of accidents. Industry 4.0 technologies enable to dispose of enormous quantity of data, process them with advanced algorithms also allowing predictivity, and provide virtual/augmented reality tools to interact with human operators. Promising solutions are spreading that use the loT paradigm to acquire data and apply Big Data techniques to manage them. The objective of “Awareness for Safey-A4S” project, is to test a complete solution that allows field operators to be equipped with intelligent wearable devices, allowing "conscious" interaction in complex environments. This solution provides for the visualization of environment information in real time through Augmented Reality devices. These devices themselves represent a "sensor" providing information to the general system. Such information, integrated with environmental data and gathered through a specific I-IoT cloud platform and customized field devices, can improve safety and effectiveness of operations. Further support for operator safety is provided by a route tracking system aimed at directing operators, walking in the terminal, on the shortest and safest path. Such system can consider in real time the risks due to the movements of terminal equipment. The current paper presents this solution and the first field tests at PSA SECH container terminal in the Italian port of Genoa port to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution in increasing safety in complex and dangerous environments.