Application and Validation of a Mechanical Motion Capture-Based Industrial Ergonomics Assessment System

This study introduces a system which integrates a mechanical motion capture system into computer-aided ergonomics assessment. The study focuses on the application of the system on industrial ergonomics studies and evaluation of system's over-time reliability and criteria-related validity in assessing ergonomics risks. Two lifting jobs were analyzed using this system in the real industrial environment. By taking the manual measurement as the baseline criteria, the validity of the system was assessed. The system demonstrated the capability in efficiency and accuracy. Also, participants were invited to perform two lifting tasks in a well-calibrated lab environment in different time. By comparing the ergonomic assessment results between different trials, the system over-time reliability was assessed. The high correlation of ergonomics result between trials demonstrated good over-time reliability. The result of this study proves the system is valid and reliable for conducting some ergonomic study.