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

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

doi:10.1109/ro-man47096.2020.9223565

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The proposed set of indexes was computed and then, their outcome was investigated to establish their link with the most common ergonomic risk factors. It should be underlined that, as previously said, the proposed indexes are conceived to perform an online evaluation, as demonstrated in our previous works [20], [21], [22]. However, in this study, they are computed a posteriori for the sake of a thorough analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…forces or torques acting on and inside the body). Indeed, some indicators that were investigated and developed in previous studies [20], [21], [22] such as overloading torque, fatigue, and power, the human centre of mass (CoM) potential energy, and compressive forces are integrated into the framework to establish a comprehensive method for the assessment of humans' ergonomics in the workplace (see Figure 1). The proposed framework is conceived to work with wearable and easy-to-use sensor systems, which allow the users to move freely and can be used for long periods, meeting the requirements of real factories.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, the eighth index ω 8 (q) derives from the "compressive force" concept that was originally conceived in [22] to account for the balanced inward ("pushing") forces that result from the interaction of the human with the environment or objects. The aim of this study was to overcome the limitations of the overloading joint torque index.…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Online Multi-Index Approach to Human Ergonomics Assessment in the Workplace

Lorenzini¹,

Kim²,

Ajoudani³

2021

Preprint

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Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) remain one of the major occupational safety and health problems in the European Union nowadays. Thus, continuous tracking of workers' exposure to the factors that may contribute to their development is paramount. This paper introduces an online approach to monitor kinematic and dynamic quantities on the workers, providing on the spot an estimate of the physical load required in their daily jobs. A set of ergonomic indexes is defined to account for multiple potential contributors to WMSDs, also giving importance to the subject-specific requirements of the workers. To evaluate the proposed framework, a thorough experimental analysis was conducted on twelve human subjects considering tasks that represent typical working activities in the manufacturing sector. For each task, the ergonomic indexes that better explain the underlying physical load were identified, following a statistical analysis, and supported by the outcome of a surface electromyography (sEMG) analysis. A comparison was also made with a well-recognised and standard tool to evaluate human ergonomics in the workplace, to highlight the benefits introduced by the proposed framework. Results demonstrate the high potential of the proposed framework in identifying the physical risk factors, and therefore to adopt preventive measures. Another equally important contribution of this study is the creation of a comprehensive database on human kinodynamic 1 measurements, which hosts multiple sensory data of healthy subjects performing typical industrial tasks.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Online Multi-Index Approach to Human Ergonomics Assessment in the Workplace

Lorenzini¹,

Kim²,

Ajoudani³

2021

Preprint

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“…The original estimation problem represented by ( 4) can be decomposed into a two-step process as presented in (25). The non-collocated wrench estimation represented by (25b) is considered to be the first step that results in link external wrench estimates (23). These estimates are given as the input wrench measurements to the new measurement vector y denotes as,…”

Section: A Non-collocated Wrench Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online Non-Collocated Estimation of Payload and Articular Stress for Real-Time Human Ergonomy Assessment

et al. 2021

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Improving the quality of work for human beings is receiving a lot of attention from multiple research communities. In particular, digital transformation in human factors and ergonomics is going to empower the next generation of the socio-technical workforce. The use of wearable sensors, collaborative robots, and exoskeletons, coupled with novel technologies for the real-time assessment of human ergonomy forms the crux of this digital transformation. In this direction, this paper focuses on the open problem of estimating the interaction wrench experienced at the human extremities (such as hands), where the feasibility of direct sensor measurements is not practical. We refer to our approach as non-collocated wrench estimation, as we aim to estimate the wrench at known contact locations but without using any direct force-torque sensor measurements at these known locations. We achieve this by extending the formulation of stochastic inverse dynamics for humans by considering a centroidal dynamics constraint to perform a reliable non-collocated estimation of interaction wrench and the joint torques (articular stress) experienced as a direct consequence of the interaction. Our approach of non-collocated estimation is thoroughly validated in terms of payload estimation and articular stress estimation through validation and experimental scenarios involving dynamic human motions like walking.

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“…To promote human-centred collaborative frameworks, online methods for assessing the effect of external loading on all body joints [12], [13] and fatigue [14], [15] in human-robot collaborations have been developed and their effectiveness have been evaluated [16], [17] in our previous works. By employing the principles of humanoid robotics to model human kinematics, dynamics and effort, the proposed methods allow reduced complexity but increased scalability, showing promising opportunities for workers' physical load assessment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Flexible Robotics-Inspired Computational Model of Compressive Loading on the Human Spine

Ventura

Lorenzini

Kim

et al. 2021

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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The use of powerful robotics tools in modeling and analysis of complex biomechanical systems has led to the development of computationally effective and scalable human models. Our early work in this regard focused on a humanoidsbased rigid-body modeling of human kinodynamics to monitor instantaneous and accumulating effects of external loads on body joints. Nevertheless, despite their high-computational efficiency, the flexible nature of the spine and its characteristic were not taken into account, resulting in less accurate estimations of the spinal compressive forces. Accordingly, in this work, we propose a flexible model of the human spine mechanics for assessing compressive loading, and integrate it in our robotics-based whole-body model. Such a model can quantify the compressive force distribution along the spine and the muscles' activity for a measured back configuration and known external forces, which both contribute to increasing the ergonomic risk level. The muscles' activity predictions are validated through an experimental analysis on six human subjects. Three different tests are conducted considering different loading conditions. Results demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach in monitoring the spine compressive loading and predicting a muscles activity with an average accuracy of 10% against experimental data. Minimizing the required number of sensors and the amount of computational resources, the presented approach is particularly suitable for online risk evaluation in a real working scenario.

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

Cited by 10 publications

References 11 publications

An Online Multi-Index Approach to Human Ergonomics Assessment in the Workplace

An Online Multi-Index Approach to Human Ergonomics Assessment in the Workplace

Online Non-Collocated Estimation of Payload and Articular Stress for Real-Time Human Ergonomy Assessment

A Flexible Robotics-Inspired Computational Model of Compressive Loading on the Human Spine

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