Real time RULA assessment using Kinect v2 sensor

Manghisi, Vito Modesto; Uva, Antonio Emmanuele; Fiorentino, Michele; Bevilacqua, Vitoantonio; Trotta, Gianpaolo Francesco; Monno, Giuseppe

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2017.02.015

Cited by 157 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The results were in accordance with those presented in Manghisi et al (2017) without occlusions. However, it was difficult to compare other of our results because this recent study was limited to 15 static postures performed by one volunteer and without external occlusions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Usability of Corrected Kinect Measurement for Ergonomic Evaluation in Constrained Environment

Multon

Shum

Plantard

2017

IJHFMS

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Evaluation of potential risks of musculoskeletal disorders in real workstations is challenging as the environment is cluttered, which makes it difficult to correctly assess the pose of a worker. Being marker-free and calibration-free, Microsoft Kinect is a promising device to assess these poses, but it can deliver unreliable poses especially when occlusions occur. To overcome this problem, we propose to detect and correct badly recognised body parts thanks to a database of example poses. We applied the proposed method to compute rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) score in a realistic environment that involved sub-optimal Kinect placement and several types of occlusions. Results showed that when occlusions occur, the inaccurate raw Kinect data could be significantly improved using our correction method, leading to acceptable joint angles and RULA scores. Our method opens new perspectives to define new fatigue or solicitation indexes based on continuous measurement contrary to classical static images used in ergonomics.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Usability of Corrected Kinect Measurement for Ergonomic Evaluation in Constrained Environment

Multon

Shum

Plantard

2017

IJHFMS

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“…For every axis, a twist is established. A screw axis is a 6x1 vector that describes the linear and angular velocity (Selig 2005;Lynch and Park 2017). Equation 1 shows how a single screw axis is defined mathematically.…”

Section: Joint Torques Calculation and Comparison Of Multiple Jointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most important mathematical entity for the whole algorithm to function is the adjoint representation (Selig 2005;Lynch and Park 2017). This 6 − by − 6 matrix maps a vector, such as a screw axis, from one coordinate frame tasks, a, b show a frame from the assembling task in video and MoCap.…”

Section: Joint Torques Calculation and Comparison Of Multiple Jointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analyzing the kinematic and kinetic contributions of the human upper body’s joints for ergonomics assessment

Menychtas

Glushkova

Manitsaris

2020

J Ambient Intell Human Comput

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During an eight-hour shift, an industrial worker will inevitably cycle through specific postures. Those postures can cause microtrauma on the musculoskeletal system that accumulates, which in turn can lead to chronic injury. To assess how problematic a posture is, the rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) scoring system is widely employed by the industry. Even though it is a very quick and efficient method of assessment, RULA is not a biomechanics-based measurement that is anchored in a physical parameter of the human body. As such RULA does not give a detailed description of the impact each posture has on the human joints but rather, an overarching, simplified assessment of a posture. To address this issue, this paper proposes the use of joint angles and torques as an alternative way of ergonomics evaluation. The cumulative motion and torque throughout a trial is compared with the average motions and torques for the same task. This allows the evaluation of each joint's kinematic and kinetic performance while still be able to assess a task"at-a-glance". To do this, an upper human body model was created and the mass of each segment were assigned. The joint torques and the RULA scores were calculated for simple range of motion (ROM) tasks, as well as actual tasks from a TV assembly line. The joint angles and torques series were integrated and then normalized to give the kinematic and kinetic contribution of each joint during a task as a percentage. This made possible to examine each joint's strain during each task as well as highlight joints that need to be more closely examined. Results show how the joint angles and torques can identify which joint is moving more and which one is under the most strain during a task. It was also possible to compare the performance of a task with the average performance and identify deviations that may imply improper execution. Even though the RULA is a very fast and concise assessment tool, it leaves little room for further analyses. However, the proposed work suggests a richer alternative without sacrificing the benefit of a quick evaluation. The biggest limitation of this work is that a pool of proper executions needs to be recorded for each task before individual comparisons can be done.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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“…Manghisi et al suggest an ergonomic evaluation using Kinect v2 sensor, in this case the ergonomic assessment is carried out by means of a computer processing and a skeleton tracking system. The evaluation proposed does not require expensive devices and allows ensuring in real time the psychophysical wellbeing of worker consistently with paradigms introduced by the Fourth Industrial Revolution [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimizing and Balancing Ergonomic Risk of Workers of an Assembly Line by Job Rotation: a MINLP Model

Digiesi¹,

Facchini²,

Mossa³

et al. 2018

IJIEM

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In today's economic context the workforce is a crucial asset in manufacturing industries. The employee performance and productivity are affected by many factors related on one hand to the line efficiency and, on the other hand, to the well-being of the workers. On the basis of new technologies and driven by Industry 4.0 paradigms, the need of a high production rate cannot neglect the safeguarding of the workers. In case of repetitive manual tasks, workers are exposed to the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), that can be reduced by applying ergonomics principles both in design (e.g. workstation design, equipment tools identification, etc.) and in operative phases (e.g. workload balance, tasks assignment, etc.). In the operative phase, job rotation is one of the most widespread methods for alleviating physical fatigue and reducing the stress due to repetitive tasks. However, often, job rotation strategies fail due to the lack of systematic approach or effective management of rotation schedules, being very difficult to identify an effective job rotation schedule allowing maintaining the same productivity rate. The problem is of particular interest under the perspective of the workforce aging, a social European phenomenon which is also affecting production systems performance. Designing and scheduling of human-based assembly systems require a joint evaluation of production system performance and a good balancing of MSDs risk among workers. The authors proposed a model for minimizing the exposure risk of workers involved in repetitive manual tasks, by balancing the human workloads and reducing the ergonomic risk within acceptable limits, for a given production target. Risk and its acceptability are evaluated using the RULA method, according to a mixed integer programming approach. Results shown the effectiveness of the model to identify the optimal job rotation schedules jointly achieving productivity and ergonomic risk goals.

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Real time RULA assessment using Kinect v2 sensor

Cited by 157 publications

References 27 publications

Usability of Corrected Kinect Measurement for Ergonomic Evaluation in Constrained Environment

Usability of Corrected Kinect Measurement for Ergonomic Evaluation in Constrained Environment

Analyzing the kinematic and kinetic contributions of the human upper body’s joints for ergonomics assessment

Minimizing and Balancing Ergonomic Risk of Workers of an Assembly Line by Job Rotation: a MINLP Model

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