Dynamic Muscle Fatigue Evaluation in Virtual Working Environment

Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) is one of the major health problems in mechanical work especially in manual handling jobs. Muscle fatigue is believed to be the main reason for MSD. Posture analysis techniques have been used to expose MSD risks of the work, but most of the conventional methods are only suitable for static posture analysis. Meanwhile the subjective influences from the inspectors can result differences in the risk assessment. Another disadvantage is that the evaluation has to be taken place in the workshop, so it is impossible to avoid some design defects before data collection in the field environment and it is time consuming. In order to enhance the efficiency of ergonomic MSD risk evaluation and avoid subjective influences, we develop a new muscle fatigue model and a new fatigue index to evaluate the human muscle fatigue during manual handling jobs in this paper. Our new fatigue model is closely related to the muscle load during working procedure so that it can be used to evaluate the dynamic working process. This muscle fatigue model is mathematically validated and it is to be further experimental validated and integrated into a virtual working environment to evaluate the muscle fatigue and predict the MSD risks quickly and objectively. Relevance to industry Muscle fatigue is one of the main reasons causing MSDs in industry, especially for mechanical work. Correct evaluation of muscle fatigue is necessary to determine work-rest regimens and reduce the risks of MSD.