Aerial lift interlocked with fall-protection safety apparatus

A fall-protection safety apparatus configured for use with an aerial lift and comprising a fall-protection monitoring system for monitoring the fall-protection safety apparatus, the fall-protection safety apparatus further comprising a safety line with a connector configured to be connected to a fall-protection safety harness, and the fall-protection monitoring system comprising:

• at least one sensor module mounted on the connector and configured to sense whether the connector of the safety line of the fall-protection safety apparatus appears to be connected to the fall-protection safety harness and to transmit connector status information that is indicative of whether the connector appears to be connected to the safety harness, based on whether the connector of the safety line of the fall-protection safety apparatus appears to be connected to the fall-protection safety harness;
• and,
• a base unit configured to receive the connector status information that is transmitted to the base unit from the at least one sensor module;
• and, if the connector status information indicates that the connector of the safety line of the fall-protection safety apparatus appears to be connected to the fall-protection safety harness, to send at least one first positive signal;
• wherein the base unit is configured to send the at least one first positive signal to a control circuitry of the aerial lift if the connector status information received from the at least one sensor module indicates that the connector appears to be connected to the harness and to not send any first positive signal to the control circuitry of the aerial lift if the connector status information received from the at least one sensor module indicates that the connector does not appear to be connected to the harness;
• and
• wherein the fall-protection monitoring system is configured to perform at least one self-check of at least one component of the fall-protection monitoring system and wherein the base unit is configured so that if the self-check indicates that the at least one component of the fall-protection monitoring system appears to be in a ready condition, the base unit will send at least one supplemental first positive signal.