Objectives of the Ageing@Work project

Ageing@Work will research and develop a platform of ICT tools, which on one hand, will help tailoring the workplace to the evolving needs and specificities of the ageing workers, both in terms of ergonomics and in terms of work processes and task assignments and on the other, will support the ageing worker’s active and healthy ageing at work and at home. To support workability, the platform will include physical and mental health support ICT tools, as well as telepresence and productivity enhancement tools, based on advanced AI, AR, VR and virtual assistant technologies, and with particular emphasis on flexible management of work, along with quality of life support.

The objectives of the project are:

The project starts with the research and development of the virtual worker model and the virtual workplace model, as the basis for improving the design of the working and living environments of ageing workers. 

To meet this objective, a personalized human activity and behaviour monitoring system will be developed. The system will be enhanced with sensing modalities, signal processing techniques and machine learning approaches.

This objective encompasses the research and development of two tools that will be used by the ageing workers themselves, helping them to (a) adapt their workplace physical design, so as to match their needs in terms of ergonomics, safety and health factors and (b) adapt their task assignments and scheduling, in order to optimize how, when, and from where they perform their work duties.

Ageing@Work will introduce an ambient virtual coach (AVC) in the form of a conversational agent, which will encompass both work and life-support capabilities.

Ageing@Work will research and develop a suite of three personalized tools for enhancing the productivity and workability of the ageing worker. The suite will comprise three core tools: (i) an AR and VR based telepresence tool that will help the older worker into remote collaboration, (ii) a personalized VR and AR based lifelong training tool, which will facilitate the older worker into the learning of new tasks and processes and  (iii) a knowledge sharing toolkit, by Visual Analytics technologies, that will ensure that knowledge and experience gained by the older workers is tranferred to younger workers as well as that knowledge and experienced gathered by younger workers is structured and provided to the ageing worker in an understandable, intuitive and easy-to-use way.

Ageing@Work will offer the HR/OSH departments targeted services to improve the ageing personnel management in terms of monitoring and assessing the overall condition of the personnel, drawing better plans for intervention based on real-time information and empowering the intervention personnel with a variety of digital capabilities.

Ageing@Work will follow a user-centred design approach, designing and evaluating the project developments and the overall integrated Ageing@Work system in realistic conditions of two pilot sites, in Germany and in Spain. Both sites will be dedicated to ageing workers, where the German pilot site will be devoted to applying the envisaged ICT solution to an indoor, machining factory and the Spanish site will be devoted to an outdoor, mining factory

The project will demonstrate the financial benefits that its framework can introduce to employers as well as health and social systems with quantifiable evidence. Building upon this evidence base as well as on the intelligence gained through market research, a business case will be elaborated for the introduction of the Ageing@Work framework to the market.