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Publication Abstract

Application and Validation of a Mechanical Motion Capture-Based Industrial Ergonomics System

Wu, T., McGinley, J., Duffy, V., & Liu, L. (2005). Application and Validation of a Mechanical Motion Capture-Based Industrial Ergonomics System. 2005 Digital Human Modeling for Design and Engineering Symposium. Iowa City, IA.

The paper introduces an ergonomics assessment system currently being developed at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi State University. Data from a mechanical (exoskeleton) motion capture system is integrated with ergonomics evaluation software. An evaluation of the reliability and validity of this system is presented. Mechanical motion capture system has not demonstrated as wide usage as optical-based and magnetic-based motion capture systems in ergonomics analyses. The Human and Systems Engineering research thrust at CAVS has developed a system which uses the Gypsy Suit, a mechanical motion capture system, to conduct ergonomics assessments. The system has been demonstrated efficient and effective in actual industrial ergonomics analyses. This study evaluates the system’s over-time reliability and criteria-related validity in assessing ergonomics risks. Participants are invited to wear the Gypsy Suit and perform several lifting tasks (symmetric and asymmetric) in a well-controlled lab environment. Baselines come from the manually measured and calculated NIOSH lifting equation lifting index (LI) for each lifting task. The system implements the 1991 Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation to assess the tasks and results are compared with the baselines. The correlation and accuracy of the LIs are used to evaluate the criteria-related validity. Each lifting task is performed in two phases, each one week apart. There are two trials for each lifting task in each phase. ICC of the LIs within one phase and between two phases are used to evaluate the short-term and long-term reliability respectively. This research provides the theoretical and practical evidence for introducing an economic and efficient methodology to ergonomics research and industrial assessment, and it also provides the directions for future work to improve the performance.