Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (SHI) and NEC Corporation are set to begin a joint development of an innovative system designed to enhance safety at construction sites. The project, commencing in April 2026, aims to automatically identify near-miss incidents using camera footage and sensor data from hydraulic excavators.
In the construction industry, operations are often affected by unpredictable elements such as weather and geological conditions, leading to frequent hazardous incidents. As a response, there is an increasing demand for digital solutions that can enhance safety measures. The new system by SHI and NEC will address this need by utilizing an AI model trained on real-world data to identify and extract risk scenes from recorded footage.
This initiative follows a successful proof of concept conducted in September 2025, which demonstrated the system's ability to report near-miss incidents based on extracted risk scenes. The collaboration seeks to expand the types of incidents that can be identified and improve report generation capabilities, aligning with customers' safety management requirements.
The system will leverage SHI’s expertise in construction machinery and NEC’s advanced generative AI technologies. It will analyze multimodal data, combining temporal and spatial information, to automatically generate high-quality reports on near-miss incidents. These reports will provide concise summaries of the circumstances surrounding each incident, helping to prevent future accidents.
Technical development and validation of the system will continue throughout fiscal year 2026, with practical implementation targeted for fiscal year 2027. The companies plan to extend the system's applicability to include not only physical contact scenarios but also unsafe conditions that might not be immediately apparent to workers.
By integrating their respective strengths, SHI and NEC aim to contribute to the realization of safer construction sites, enhancing the industry's overall safety standards and reducing the potential for accidents.