The growing number of musculoskeletal disorders in industry could be addressed by the use of collaborative robots, which allow the joint manipulation of objects by both a robot and a person. However the efficiency of a collaborative robot regarding the reduction of musculoskeletal disorders risks is highly task-dependent. Yet, even when designing dedicated systems, the ergonomic benefit provide...

PROBLEM Few methods exist for comprehensively examining the costs and benefits of ergonomic interventions applicable to a variety of economic sectors and settings. METHODS An instrument for data collection and data analysis at the facility level is presented. In this net-cost model intervention costs are defined by equipment and labor costs for the interventions as well as the avoided costs o...

Today, the musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most frequent health problems related directly to working conditions and they occur in nurses who get little or no training in the safety and ergonomic principle of patients' care. This study is aimed to evaluate interaction between the nurses’ awareness of ergonomic principles and workplace conditions with work-related injuries in two Iranian...

The objective of this research was to study and identify ergonomic deficiencies in computer workstation design in typical offices. Physical measurements and a questionnaire were used to study 40 workstations. Major ergonomic deficiencies were found in physical design and layout of the workstations, employee postures, work practices, and training. The consequences in terms of user health and oth...

This special issue of the International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (JOSE) reports the results from an extensive multinational and multidisciplinary collaborative investigation of the impacts on visual display terminal (VDT) work of musculoskeletal, visual, ergonomic, and psychosocial factors. For brevity, this effort has been referred to as the MEPS project (musculoskeletal--...

the effect of aging on surface anthropometry, articulation limits and physical strength for digital humans at joint level. By making use of an anthropometric database, physical characteristic database and prioritized Inverse Kinematics architecture, the developed simulation system could be a core engine for ergonomic analysis at the conceptual design stage of a product development cycle. The pr...

Product classification using anthropometric measurements leads to ergonomic product design and user satisfaction. We propose an effective artificial immune algorithm (AIA) to classify ergonomic products with multi-criteria anthropometric measurements and tune the AIA parameters with a full factorial experimental design approach. We demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed algo...

background and objectives: non-ergonomic computer work has emerged as a significant cause of musculoskeletal disorders among employees of health care organizations.  given the negative impact of such disorders on quality of work life, safety, and performance of hospital staff, there is a need to evaluate the exposure of this staff to the ergonomic risks associated with the computer-based jobs. ...