Onda Vision Technologies, Inc — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.12

Description

Onda Vision Technologies Inc (OVT) in collaboration with the University of Florida (UF)proposes to address the problem of heat-related illness (HRI) in farmworkers. This proposalsupports the United States Department of Agricultural (USDA) research interests in developingnew tools to enhance farm safety.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Project determines the feasibility of developingan Internet of Things (IoT) platform (Smart Safety) for real-time hydration monitoring offarmworkers. Our innovative approach employs a novel wearable hydration sensor coupled withdata analytics to detect and monitor the farmworker's relative hydration changes. Our valueproposition offers a paradigm shift from traditional manual and invasive field-based hydrationassessment methods to an IoT-based approach enabling continuous monitoring of the farmworkersto provide early alerts of dehydration.Onda Vision Technologies' Smart Safety platform has the potential to enhance the safetyperformance of agricultural operations and overcome workplace barriers that limit the adequacy offarmworkers' fluid intake strategies. We envision our research will lead to a viable solution forsmall and medium farm owners that enables integrated safety risk assessment and surveillance andsupports operation management. Potential outcomes derived from the proposed research can offersmall farm owners' incentives such as insurance premium discounts improved safety performanceindicators productivity increases and a reduction in fines for violations of workplace safetystandards.