SBIR-STTR Award

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 proposal supports the United States Department of Agricultural (USDA) research interests in developing new tools to enhance farm safety. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Project determines the feasibility of developing an Internet of Things (IoT) platform (Smart Safety) for real-time hydration monitoring of farmworkers. Our innovative approach employs a novel wearable hydration sensor coupled with data analytics to detect and monitor the farmworker's relative hydration changes. Our value proposition offers a paradigm shift from traditional manual and invasive field-based hydration assessment methods to an IoT-based approach enabling continuous monitoring of the farmworkers to provide early alerts of dehydration. Onda Vision Technologies' Smart Safety platform has the potential to enhance the safety performance of agricultural operations and overcome workplace barriers that limit the adequacy of farmworkers' fluid intake strategies. We envision our research will lead to a viable solution for small and medium farm owners that enables integrated safety risk assessment and surveillance and supports operation management. Potential outcomes derived from the proposed research can offers mall farm owners' incentives such as insurance premium discounts improved safety performance indicators productivity increases and a reduction in fines for violations of workplace safety standards.