A New Overloading Fatigue Model for Ergonomic Risk Assessment with Application to Human-Robot Collaboration

Lorenzini, Marta; Kim, Wansoo; Momi, Elena De; Ajoudani, Arash

doi:10.1109/icra.2019.8794044

Cited by 40 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…I, this work aims at adding a new realtime index to the observation layer of a more sophisticated human ergonomics framework (see Fig. 2), whose multilayer approach is based on our previous works [4], [10]. The methods developed so far, of which a brief summary is provided hereafter, only considered the effect of the external loads on joint torque variations, neglecting the internal forces among body links and thus motivating the introduction of the new index.…”

Section: Methods Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Real-time Tool for Human Ergonomics Assessment based on Joint Compressive Forces

Fortini

Lorenzini

Kim

et al. 2020

2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)

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The objective of this paper is to present a mathematical tool for real-time tracking of whole-body compressive forces induced by external physical solicitations. This tool extends and enriches our recently introduced ergonomics monitoring system to asses the level of risk associated with human physical activities in human-robot collaboration contexts. The methods developed so far only considered the effect of the external loads on joint torque variations. However, even for negligible values of the joint torque overloadings (e.g., in singular configurations), the effect of compressive forces, defined by the internal/pushing forces among body links, can be significant. Accordingly, we propose the joint compressive forces as an additional real-time index for the assessment of human ergonomics. First, a simulation study is performed to validate the method. Then, follows a laboratory study on five subjects to compare the trend of the joint compressive forces with muscle activities. Results demonstrate the significance of the proposed index in the development of a comprehensive human ergonomics monitoring framework. Based on such a framework, robotic strategies as well as feedback interfaces can be employed to guide and optimise the human movement toward more convenient body configurations thus avoiding pain and consequent injuries.

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Section: Methods Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This real-time index, called "overloading joint torque", was developed to alert humans about excessive physical stress and consequent injuries. Then, the cumulative effect of the overloading joint torque in prolonged activities was studied in [10], under a new index called the "overloading fatigue".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Real-time Tool for Human Ergonomics Assessment based on Joint Compressive Forces

Fortini

Lorenzini

Kim

et al. 2020

2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)

Self Cite

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“…This study aims to demonstrate the strength of a completely online and subject-specific ergonomics assessment tool that fits in a wider ergonomic human-robot collaboration framework [15], [16]. The overall procedure can be divided into two main parts: a calibration phase (left side of Fig.…”

Section: Methods Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework for Real-time and Personalisable Human Ergonomics Monitoring

Fortini

Lorenzini

Kim

et al. 2020

2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

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The objective of this paper is to present a personalisable human ergonomics framework that integrates a method for real-time identification of a human model and an ergonomics monitoring function. The human model is based on a floating base structure and on a Statically Equivalent Serial Chain (SESC) model used for the estimation of the whole-body centre of Mass (CoM). A recursive linear regression algorithm (i.e., Kalman filter) is developed to achieve the online identification of the SESC parameters. A visual feedback provides a minimum set of suggested human poses to speed up the identification process, while enhancing the model accuracy based on a convergence value. The online ergonomics monitoring function computes and displays the overloading effects on body joints in heavy lifting tasks. The overloading joint torques are calculated based on the displacement of the Center of Pressure (CoP) between the measured one and the estimated one. Unlike our previous work, the entire process, from the model identification (personalisation) to ergonomics monitoring, is performed in real-time. We evaluated the efficacy of the proposed method through human experiments during model identification and load lifting tasks. Results demonstrate the high exploitation potential of the framework in industrial settings, due to its fast personalisation and ergonomics monitoring capacity.

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“…Nevertheless, this map only examined safety in terms of possible collisions and gave no consideration to other major factors that affect the human ergonomics, such as joint torque, posture, and fatigue. Several methods used either one of these factors as ergonomics criterion (Kim et al, 2018a , b ; Lorenzini et al, 2019 ; Peternel et al, 2019 ; Petrič et al, 2019 ). The method in Maurice et al ( 2016 ) considered multiple criteria, but did not provide a combined overall ergonomics index.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binary and Hybrid Work-Condition Maps for Interactive Exploration of Ergonomic Human Arm Postures

2021

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Ergonomics of human workers is one of the key elements in design and evaluation of production processes. Human ergonomics have a major impact on productivity as well as chronic health risks incurred by inappropriate working postures and conditions. In this paper we propose a novel method for estimating and communicating the ergonomic work condition called Binary Work-Condition Map, which provides a visualized feedback about work conditions of different configurations of an arm. The map is of binary nature and is derived by imposing the desired thresholds on considered ergonomic and safety related criteria. Therefore, the suggested arm postures in the map guarantee that all considered criteria are satisfied. This eliminates the ambiguity compared to state-of-the-art maps that uses continuous scales derived from weighted sum of multiple ergonomics criteria. In addition, to combine the advantages of both the binary map and the continuous map, we additionally propose a Hybrid Work-Condition Map that rules out unsuitable workspace with the binary map approach and renders the suitable workspace with the continuous map approach. The proposed approach was tested in simulation for various tasks and conditions. In addition, we conducted subjective evaluation experiments to compare the proposed methods with the state-of-the art method regarding the usability. The results indicated that the binary map is simpler to use, while the hybrid map is a good tradeoff between the binary and the continuous map. In selecting the map, strong points of each map should be considered with respect to the requirements of a specific application and task.

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A New Overloading Fatigue Model for Ergonomic Risk Assessment with Application to Human-Robot Collaboration

Cited by 40 publications

References 27 publications

A Real-time Tool for Human Ergonomics Assessment based on Joint Compressive Forces

A Real-time Tool for Human Ergonomics Assessment based on Joint Compressive Forces

A Framework for Real-time and Personalisable Human Ergonomics Monitoring

Binary and Hybrid Work-Condition Maps for Interactive Exploration of Ergonomic Human Arm Postures

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