Through the MSD Prevention Safety Innovation Challenge, the National Safety Council is interested in innovative solutions that reduce the frequency or severity of musculoskeletal disorders by mitigating MSD-related risks in the workplace, such as forceful exertion, awkward postures and repetitive motion. In-scope approaches include, but are not limited to:
- Exoskeletons that augment, enable, assist or enhance physical activity
- Wearables that give real-time feedback on a user’s movements, posture and vital signs to individual workers and/or site safety supervisors; and computer vision technology that can assess worker posture or movements through video input and artificial intelligence to assess MSD risks
- Cobots or robots that can work safely with humans to complete work, particularly repetitive or forceful tasks, to prevent and reduce MSDs
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) platforms that provide alerts/insights to workers and/or site safety supervisors
- Extended, augmented or virtual reality systems that help workers or employers identify ergonomic risks and practice difficult tasks in a controlled environment
- Digital twins that create virtual replicas of workplaces and/or workers that enable proactive analysis of postures, movements and potential risks
Technologies for all industries and occupations are of interest so long as the proposed application addresses MSD risk mitigation and reduces the frequency or severity of MSDs in the workplace.
All MSD risks (e.g., forceful exertion, awkward postures, repetitive motions) are in-scope, regardless of the impacted body region, overall prevalence or severity.
Evaluation Criteria
- Approach and technical merit: 20 points
- Risk reduction effectiveness: 20 points
- Innovation and novelty: 20 points
- Feasibility and scalability: 15 points
- User experience and adoption ease: 15 points
- Sustainability and compliance: 10 points
We strongly encourage respondents to include information in their responses that provides clear, compelling and engaging information about how their proposed technology aligns with these metrics.
Furthermore, we will give special attention to technologies that:
- Address psychosocial, environmental, behavioral or organizational MSD risks
- Are novel and innovative technologies unique to the market