AUTOMATIC ERGONOMIC POSTURAL RISK MONITORING ON THE FACTORY SHOPFLOOR ‒THE ERGOSENTINEL TOOL

Abstract The enabling technologies of the Industry 4.0 program can support the smart factory of the future to face the challenges related to their sustainable growth. In particular, given the progressive ageing of the population, it is mandatory to develop systems able to preserve operators’ wellbeing and to prevent the incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. By exploiting a recently introduced low-cost sensor we developed and validated a reliable prototype for automatic assessment of ergonomic postural risk in the factory shopfloor. Encouraged by the results of the validation process, we enhanced the prototype functionalities. The tool will serve both as a monitoring system for the evaluation of postural risk and a training system for increasing operators’ awareness. In this paper, we describe the design of the prototype and the enhanced functionalities of the final version, ‒ the ErgoSentinel.

[1]  Holly Tuokko,et al.  Direct and indirect measurement of physical activity in older adults: a systematic review of the literature , 2012, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

[2]  Franck Multon,et al.  Validation of an ergonomic assessment method using Kinect data in real workplace conditions. , 2017, Applied ergonomics.

[3]  Giorgio Mossa,et al.  Minimizing and Balancing Ergonomic Risk of Workers of an Assembly Line by Job Rotation: a MINLP Model , 2018, International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management.

[4]  Jean-Claude Sagot,et al.  Physical risk factors identification based on body sensor network combined to videotaping. , 2017, Applied ergonomics.

[5]  J. Winkel,et al.  Self-assessed and directly measured occupational physical activities--influence of musculoskeletal complaints, age and gender. , 2004, Applied ergonomics.

[6]  Tilak Dutta,et al.  Evaluation of the Kinect™ sensor for 3-D kinematic measurement in the workplace. , 2012, Applied ergonomics.

[7]  Xu Xu,et al.  Accuracy of the Microsoft Kinect for measuring gait parameters during treadmill walking. , 2015, Gait & posture.

[8]  G. David.  Ergonomic methods for assessing exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. , 2005, Occupational medicine.

[9]  Franck Multon,et al.  Pose Estimation with a Kinect for Ergonomic Studies: Evaluation of the Accuracy Using a Virtual Mannequin , 2015, Sensors.

[10]  Raymond W. McGorry,et al.  The validity of the first and second generation Microsoft Kinect™ for identifying joint center locations during static postures. , 2015, Applied ergonomics.

[11]  G. L. Cascella,et al.  Evaluating the effectiveness of spatial augmented reality in smart manufacturing: a solution for manual working stations , 2017, The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology.

[12]  Theodora Chaspari,et al.  Automated ergonomic risk monitoring using body-mounted sensors and machine learning , 2018, Adv. Eng. Informatics.

[13]  Giovanni Mummolo,et al.  Ergonomic improvement through job rotations in repetitive manual tasks in case of limited specialization and differentiated ergonomic requirements , 2016 .

[14]  Gianpaolo Francesco Trotta,et al.  Real time RULA assessment using Kinect v2 sensor. , 2017, Applied ergonomics.

[15]  Michele Dassisti,et al.  Experiencing the Sights, Smells, Sounds, and Climate of Southern Italy in VR , 2017, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[16]  Jose Antonio Diego-Mas,et al.  Using Kinect™ sensor in observational methods for assessing postures at work. , 2014, Applied ergonomics.

[17]  Danuta Roman-Liu,et al.  Comparison of concepts in easy-to-use methods for MSD risk assessment. , 2014, Applied ergonomics.

[18]  Giorgio Mossa,et al.  Modelling Workforce Aging in Job Rotation Problems , 2015 .

[19]  Reza Akhavian,et al.  Ergonomic analysis of construction worker's body postures using wearable mobile sensors. , 2017, Applied ergonomics.

[20]  L McAtamney,et al.  RULA: a survey method for the investigation of work-related upper limb disorders. , 1993, Applied ergonomics.

[21]  Richard F. Sesek,et al.  Barriers to the Adoption of Wearable Sensors in the Workplace: A Survey of Occupational Safety and Health Professionals , 2018, Hum. Factors.

[22]  Enrico Rukzio,et al.  Applicability Evaluation of Kinect for EAWS Ergonomic Assessments , 2019 .