Ergonomics Risk Assessment for Manual Material Handling of Warehouse Activities Involving High Shelf and Low Shelf Binning Processes: Application of Marker-Based Motion Capture

Abstract

Lower back pain is a musculoskeletal disorder that is commonly reported among warehouse workers due to the nature of the work environment and manual handling activities. The objective of this study was to assess the ergonomic risks among warehouse workers carrying out high shelf (HS) and low shelf (LS) binning processes. A questionnaire was used to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms, while a marker-based motion capture (MoCap) system worksheet was used to record the participants’ motion and determine the action risk level. A total of 33% of the participants reported lower back pain in the past seven days, based on the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) results. Analysis of the body velocities showed that the HS binning process had four major velocity peaks, defined as the initial, lowering, lifting, and final phases. In comparison, the LS binning process had two major peaks defined, the crouching and rising phases. There were significant differences between the mean velocities of the workers for the HS binning process, indicating that the workers have different movement patterns with varying velocities.

Ergonomic assessment for designing manual material handling tasks at a food warehouse in India: A case study

“…The ergonomic assessment methodology adopted in the present research is depicted in Figure 5. It presents the purpose, method/tool The ergonomic assessment tools have been adopted by various researchers prominently for a few purposes, such as developing interventions/aids to minimize the consequences of the concerned MMH (Jung & Jung, 2003;Kumar et al, 2021), and evaluating and redesigning the task (Drisya et al, 2018;Parida et al, 2016;Torres & Viña, 2012;Zhao et al, 2022). On a similar line, the methodology proposed in the present research is based on the combination of relevant tools as adopted by the researchers.…”

“…There are plenty of such techniques, each having distinct suitability and benefits over another. A few notable applications of this approach can be found in construction industry and warehouse (Drisya et al, 2018; Torres & Viña, 2012; Zhao et al, 2022). In recent years, researchers (e.g., Battini et al, 2014) have adopted motion capture and inertial sensors to improve the accuracy of traditional ergonomic assessment tools.…”

Biomechanics Analysis of the Firefighters’ Thorax Movement on Personal Protective Equipment during Lifting Task Using Inertial Measurement Unit Motion Capture

“…In short, this study discusses the angle deviation and angular acceleration of the thorax movement of FFs during a lifting task. The angle deviation describes the posture, while the angular acceleration describes the thorax motion of the FFs [ 38 ].…”

Classification of the Pathological Range of Motion in Low Back Pain Using Wearable Sensors and Machine Learning

“…Then, Washabaugh et al underscored the repeatability and accuracy of inertial and optical sensors in appraising gait parameters, their assertions aligning with extant research regarding Lin's concordance coefficient (LCC) and minimal detectable change (MDC) [19]. Zhao et al highlighted MoCap's ergonomics contributions, highlighting its preventive prowess against posture-induced afflictions in industrial arenas [20,28]. The recent trial for MoCap technology in LBP diagnosis lies in harnessing these data effectively, given its complexity and richness [23].…”