AI Agentic Workflow for Continuous Safety Gear (PPE) Compliance Checking

This workflow automates the continuous, site-wide monitoring of personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance and unsafe worker proximity to heavy equipment. It directly targets the high-cost operational bottleneck of manual safety walks and reactive incident reporting. The business value is clear: proactive violation detection reduces recordable incidents, lowers experience modification rates (EMRs) for insurance premiums, and automates the creation of audit-ready documentation for OSHA 300 logs, saving superintendents and safety officers 15-20 hours per week in manual observation and paperwork.

Implementation integrates fixed 360-degree site cameras and scheduled drone patrols, with vision models trained on hard hat, vest, glove, and fall protection detection. The orchestrator, built on a framework like LangGraph, manages alert routing: high-risk violations (e.g., no harness near edge) trigger immediate superintendent alerts via radio integration, while minor issues populate a daily safety dashboard. The architecture includes approval gates for incident confirmation, integrates with access control systems for personnel identification, and feeds work orders into CMMS like ServiceNow for closed-loop correction. Observability is built in, tracking false positive rates to continuously refine model performance and ensure governance.

This workflow automates the continuous detection of PPE violations and unsafe proximity to equipment using fixed cameras and drones. It eliminates manual safety walks and reactive incident reporting, directly targeting a reduction in recordable incidents and associated insurance premiums. The operational upside comes from real-time alerting, automated documentation for compliance, and the systematic enforcement of site safety protocols before accidents occur.

Implementation integrates with site access systems like Honeywell or LenelS2 for gate control and platforms like Procore for documentation. The architecture requires robust data pipelines, low-latency edge processing, and defined escalation paths to superintendents. Controls include confidence scoring for detections, human-in-the-loop review for ambiguous cases, and immutable audit logs to support regulatory reviews and liability defense.

Phase 1 establishes a closed-loop pilot on a controlled site zone. Fixed cameras and a scheduled drone feed computer vision models trained on hard hat and vest detection. Violation alerts are routed to a dedicated superintendent tablet via a simple dashboard, with manual verification required before any access action. This limited scope validates detection accuracy, refines alert thresholds, and socializes the process without disrupting site-wide operations, proving the core safety and documentation value.

Phase 2 integrates the validated system site-wide, connecting the alert engine to the physical access control system (e.g., turnstile gates) and the project's safety management software. Confirmed violations can now trigger gate access denials or require a safety briefing, and all incidents auto-populate OSHA 300 logs. Phase 3 layers predictive analytics, using violation location and timing data to model risk hotspots, enabling superintendents to schedule proactive briefings or adjust work plans, transforming reactive monitoring into a preventative safety instrument.

This workflow automates the detection of PPE violations and unsafe proximity to equipment using fixed cameras and drones, directly addressing the operational bottleneck of manual safety audits. The savings come from reducing incident-related downtime, lowering insurance premiums, and eliminating the administrative burden of OSHA documentation. Implementation requires integrating vision models with site access systems like Honeywell or Gallagher, and orchestrating alert logic through a central platform such as Autodesk BIM 360 or a custom LangGraph agent, ensuring all violations are logged and routed.

Governance is enforced through configurable severity thresholds and mandatory human review for high-risk violations before any access revocation. Controls include an immutable audit trail in the CMMS and integration with payroll systems for accountability. A phased rollout starts with a single high-risk zone, validating model accuracy and exception handling before scaling site-wide, ensuring the system gains trust and operational buy-in from superintendents and safety officers without disrupting ongoing work.