Common manipulator-assisted materials handling tasks were performed in a laboratory simulation at self-selected and faster (paced) speeds. The effects of pacing on peak hand forces, torso kinematics, spine moments and forces, and muscle antagonism were determined, along with any influences of several task variables on these effects. The faster trials were performed 20% more rapidly than the sel...

The works in the oil and gas industry are usually performed in open and exposed fields, constrained areas, restricted spaces, and other outdoor environments such as offshore rigs and platforms [1,2]. Workers in the oil and gas industry continuously experience the problems of noise, slippery surfaces, and numerous manual material handling exposures of carrying, lifting, lowering, pushing and pul...

Most of studies on Manual Material Handling (MMH) tasks for finding lifting capacity were done on general population; these were not done for underweight, normal weight and overweight workers. MMH task involves the use of the human body to lift, lower or carry loads. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of psychophysical approach on MAWL for underweight, normal weight and overwei...

The emergence of huge containerships together with the scarcity of yard land put an enormous pressure on authorities to adopt advanced technologies to increase the throughput of current container terminals. Automated Container Terminals (ACT), using advanced material handling technologies, are recently considered as candidates for increasing the performance of manually operated yards. In this p...

INTRODUCTION Observation-based occupational safety programs have long recognized the critical interaction of environment and behaviour in the workplace [1]. While the veracity of these programs is questioned [2], their foundation in behavioural psychology connects to various theory-based paradigms for changing manual materials handling (and musculoskeletal loading, or `consequences`) by manipul...

conclusions the prevalence of msds among the nurses was high, and the occurrence of such disorders was found to be related to the scores of mapo and ptai indices. based on the results, these two indices can be used as appropriate tools to assess the risk of msds in patient handling by nursing staff. the risk of developing msds can be lowered through interventional programs, such as providing an...

The basic requirements for small scale cropping machines are, they should be suitable for small farms, simple in design and technology and versatile for use in different farm operations. A manually operated template row planter was designed and developed to improve planting efficiency and reduce drudgery involved in manual planting method. Seed planting is also possible for different size of se...

An in-shoe pressure measurement (IPM) system can be used to measure center of pressure (COP) locations, and has fewer restrictions compared to the more conventional approach using a force platform. The insole of an IPM system, however, has its own coordinate system. To use an IPM system along with a motion capture system, there is thus a need to align the coordinate systems of the two measureme...

America’s workforce is becoming more diverse. Generally, this diversity includes workers with different anthropometry (size, shape), capabilities, work experiences, and ethnicities. More importantly, the workforce is also aging and becoming heavier. However, the impact of aging and obesity is typically not considered in traditional ergonomic modeling. This paper explores the potential impact of...