Title: Experimental assessment of the quality of ergonomic indicators for dynamic systems computed using a digital human model

Authors: Pauline Maurice; Vincent Padois; Yvan Measson; Philippe Bidaud

Addresses: Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, ISIR – CNRS UMR 7222, Boite courrier 173, 4 Place JUSSIEU, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France ' Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, ISIR – CNRS UMR 7222, Boite courrier 173, 4 Place JUSSIEU, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France ' DIGITEO Labs, 1st Floor (R), Room 0020, Batiment 660, Rue Noetzlin, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France ' Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, ISIR – CNRS UMR 7222, Boite courrier 173, 4 Place JUSSIEU, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France; ONERA French Aerospace Lab, Chemin de la Hunière, BP 80100, FR-91123 Palaiseau, Cedex, France

Abstract: The growing number of musculoskeletal disorders in industry could be addressed by collaborative robots, which allow the joint manipulation of objects by a robot and a person. Designing these dynamic systems requires to assess the ergonomic benefit they offer. Current assessment methods require physical mock-ups and exclude dynamic phenomena. To perform more thorough assessments, it is proposed to use a dynamic digital human model (DHM) associated with a dedicated ergonomic metric. This paper presents three ergonomic indicators - posture, effort and energy - formulated to meet the requirements of ergonomic evaluations of dynamic systems. Human subjects perform a manual task under different time, load and geometric constraints. Each performance is replayed with a DHM to calculate the indicators. The variations of the indicators are consistent with ergonomic guidelines, and correlate with the strenuousness perceived by the subjects. Moreover, the relevance of an indicator is strongly affected by the task features.

Keywords: ergonomics; digital human models; DHM; motion capture; motion replay; dynamic modelling; motion simulation; indicator quality; ergonomic indicators; musculoskeletal disorders; collaborative robots; robot-human interaction; posture; effort; energy; robot dynamics; robot motion.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFMS.2016.079705

International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation, 2016 Vol.5 No.3, pp.190 - 209

Received: 15 Sep 2015
Accepted: 11 Mar 2016

Published online: 10 Oct 2016 *

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