Prediction of endurance time for alternating workload tasks.

Abstract Endurance is the ability to sustain or persist in an activity continuously, This paper describes an attempt to develop a satisfactory means of predicting in advance the endurance time limit of an individual engaged in a physical task of alternating workload nature. Under moderate to heavy muscular work the endurance of a worker is related to the rate of energy output required to perform the task. Further, it has also been observed that even under a fixed workload demand, the energy output level of the worker tends to increase gradually with time. The above two criteria were taken into consideration in developing the predictive models described here. A series of experiments, with subjects walking on motor-driven treadmill while being monitored for oxygen intake and other physiological parameters, was conducted to obtain necessary data for the models and to verify the accuracy of the models. These models, it is felt, have considerable practical value with possible applications in industry, the mili...