Computer-aided Ergonomics - Benefits of Computer-aided Ergonomics

Benefits of Computer-aided Ergonomics

The question is “In what scenario” it would be beneficial to use computer-aided ergonomics compared to traditional ergonomics. First of all computer aided ergonomics using for example a musculo-skeletal modeling system as The, would be beneficial in physical ergonomics, which traditional combines aspects from the human anatomical, anthropometric, physiological and biomechanical characteristics related to some physical activity. The model can provide a quantitative foundation for ergonomic design and recommendations. Traditionally “Ergonomics” has been based on recommendations derived from empirical data from various working tasks; if many people get injured from working in a certain posture, it is recommended to avoid working in that posture. However, when applying the recommendations to another related working posture, the posture or the movement often does not match exactly. This means that the theory and recommendations does not apply to the new situation. In this case it could be beneficial to model the situation in order to find out how the reaction forces and muscle activities differ from the first situation, where the recommendations were based on empirical data. A combination of risk factors can be derived from the model output. For example, when designing an office chair, one would like to design it to fulfill several demands; comfortable, relaxing, supporting and so on. Some of the criteria related to the demands might be conflicting for example; comfort is often related to the shear force on the seat, which should be kept as low as possible. The seat shear force could be removed by making a horizontal seat and rising the backrest to 90 degrees however this would not be relaxing. Therefore, a combination of seat and backrest angles needs to be considered in order to find optimal seated postures related to only the two design variables. Computer-aided ergonomics is an interdisciplinary field of work, that involve the use of a computer to solve complex problems that involve a person interacting with an environment. As the title reveals, it is all about having a computer to help finding the best ergonomic solution. Ergonomics involves many disciplines, such as biomechanics, anthropometry, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, kinesiology, health sciences and physiology. Due to the highly interdisciplinary it is hard to get a full understanding of a situation based on knowledge, unless the knowledge in some way is build into a computer system.

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