Estimation of Lifting and Carrying Load During Manual Material Handling

Mitja Trkov, Andrew S. Merryweather

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Low back injuries and low back pain are often caused by improper task execution, overuse or lack of guidance and training. Our current understanding of dose-response relationships between risk factors that contribute to these injuries remains unclear. Enhanced monitoring of risk factors contributing to injuries could provide more complete exposure-response information. It is difficult to continuously monitor workers and their exposures to ergonomic risk factors using existing technologies. This paper presents a practical approach to advance continuous measurements of common risk factors by quantifying the weight of an object during lifting and carrying, lift frequency and lift duration during manual material handling (MMH). We estimate these parameters based on the ground reaction forces (GRF) and considering trunk dynamics. The results show that by considering trunk dynamics and applying simple signal processing techniques, we can precisely estimate these risk parameters. These parameters can then be used to estimate injury risk of workers. The developed methodology is designed for real-time continuous monitoring applications and sets the foundation for future development of in-field monitoring of workers with wearable sensors.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) - Volume VIII
Subtitle of host publicationErgonomics and Human Factors in Manufacturing, Agriculture, Building and Construction, Sustainable Development and Mining
EditorsSebastiano Bagnara, Yushi Fujita, Riccardo Tartaglia, Sara Albolino, Thomas Alexander
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages153-161
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)9783319960678
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Externally publishedYes
Event20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, IEA 2018 - Florence, Italy
Duration: Aug 26 2018Aug 30 2018

Publication series

NameAdvances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
Volume825
ISSN (Print)2194-5357

Conference

Conference20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, IEA 2018
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityFlorence
Period8/26/188/30/18

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • General Computer Science

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