Egocentric video of trade work: construction, HVAC, plumbing and auto repair
Robotics labs want to see skilled hands at work: a plumber sweating a joint, an electrician landing wires in a panel, a mechanic pulling a brake caliper. Trade work is hard to script in a lab, because the tools, the materials and the surprises come from real job sites. Footage from a camera on the worker's hardhat or headband shows that work the way a robot would see it. This guide covers what makes trade footage useful, what job sites add to the privacy work, and the two ways a trade business can take part.
The trade tasks robotics labs ask for
Requests name the trade, the task and how many different workers are filmed. Variety matters more than volume: ten electricians each wiring a panel their own way teach a model more than one electrician filmed ten times.
| Trade | Tasks that make good footage |
|---|---|
| Construction and carpentry | Framing a wall, hanging and taping drywall, setting tile, finishing concrete, measuring and marking a layout |
| Electrical | Pulling wire, landing conductors in a panel, mounting boxes, installing outlets, switches and fixtures |
| Plumbing | Cutting and joining pipe, replacing a valve or a water heater, setting a toilet, clearing a drain |
| HVAC | Servicing a furnace or condenser, swapping a capacitor or a motor, brazing a line set, changing filters and coils |
| Auto repair | Brake jobs, oil and fluid service, swapping parts under the hood, reading codes with a scan tool |
| Other hands-on work | Farms and nurseries, warehouses, commercial kitchens, cleaning crews, salons and small manufacturing |
What makes trade footage usable
Buyers check the same few things in every trade clip. The camera and mount choices are covered in how egocentric video is captured.
- The camera sits on a hardhat, headband or chest mount and points down, so both hands stay in frame
- Each clip runs the whole task, from laying out tools to cleaning up, with the slips and the fixes left in
- The worker names the tool, the part and the step out loud, or the clip carries a short task label
- The picture is steady and lit well enough to read a wire color or a part number
- One task per clip, with the date, the trade and the worker recorded, so it can be tied to a consent form
What job sites add to the privacy work
| On the job | How it is handled |
|---|---|
| Customer homes | House numbers, mail, family photos and screens are blurred or the clip is cut. The homeowner is told before recording starts. |
| Customer vehicles | License plates, VINs and anything left in the car are blurred. |
| Other crews and passers-by | Faces and voices are blurred or muted, and clips where that cannot be done reliably are left out. |
| Site rules | Some sites ban cameras, and a general contractor or property owner may need to agree first. |
| Each worker | Every person who wears the camera agrees in writing to this use and can stop recording. |
| Where it was filmed | Recording and biometric privacy rules differ by state and country. Counsel reads the rules that apply. |
Two ways a trade business can take part
If your company already holds footage of its own crews, recorded with each worker's written agreement, it can be licensed. That route is for companies with 30 or more full-time employees, and the steps are on selling egocentric video. Job records such as work orders, estimates and job photos are a separate kind of data, covered on field services and trades and construction companies.
If your crew has no footage yet, there is a second route that suits smaller shops. Some collection programs pay a business for new recordings: crews record agreed tasks during normal work, and the program pays the business for each hour of footage it reviews and accepts. We do not run a program like that, but we can point you to one we know. If your business joins and is paid, we may receive a referral fee from the program, and you do not pay us for the introduction.
What a buyer should ask for
Name the trades and the share of each, the tasks, how many different workers, the regions, the camera position and the labels needed, such as task steps or tool names. A request that says "HVAC service calls, 40 technicians, chest or head mount, US only" gets a faster and better answer than "trade footage". The labels themselves are explained in egocentric video annotation.
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Questions about egocentric video of trade work: construction, HVAC, plumbing and auto repair
Can a small contractor get paid to record its crew for AI?
Yes, through a collection program that pays the business per hour of accepted footage. We do not run one, but we can point you to one we know, and we may receive a referral fee if your business joins.
Do the workers have to agree?
Yes, each one in writing, and the agreement names AI training. A worker should be able to stop recording, and footage from anyone who did not agree is left out.
Is job site security camera footage usable?
Usually not as egocentric video. A fixed camera shows the site, not the hands doing the task, and it was recorded for security, a narrower purpose than a license.
What do robotics labs use trade footage for?
To teach a model how a skilled task is done: the order of the steps, the grip on a tool, and how a mistake gets fixed. It is mostly used for pretraining, before robot-specific data is added.
Can we record in customer homes?
Only with the homeowner told first, and with addresses, faces, mail and photos blurred or cut. Some homeowners will say no, and those jobs are not recorded.
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