An Online Method to Detect and Locate an External Load on the Human Body with Applications in Ergonomics Assessment

In this work, we propose an online method to detect and approximately locate an external load induced on the body of a person interacting with the environment. The method is based on a torque equilibrium condition on the human sagittal plane, which takes into account a reduced-complexity model of th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2020-08, Vol.20 (16), p.4471
Main Authors: Lorenzini, Marta, Kim, Wansoo, De Momi, Elena, Ajoudani, Arash
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computer Simulation
Ergonomics
Ergonomics - instrumentation
health monitoring in working environments
Human Body
Humans
Industrial applications
monitoring human-environment interaction
novel methods and systems for integrated ergonomic assessment
Posture
Robots
Sensors
Statistical analysis
Torque
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Summary:In this work, we propose an online method to detect and approximately locate an external load induced on the body of a person interacting with the environment. The method is based on a torque equilibrium condition on the human sagittal plane, which takes into account a reduced-complexity model of the whole-body centre of pressure (CoP) along with the measured one, and the vertical component of the ground reaction forces (vGRFs). The latter is combined with a statistical analysis approach to improve the localisation accuracy, (which is subject to uncertainties) to the extent of the industrial applications we target. The proposed technique eliminates the assumption of known contact position of an external load on the human limbs, allowing a more flexible online body-state tracking. The accuracy of the proposed method is first evaluated via a simulation study in which various contact points on different body postures are considered. Next, experiments on human subjects with three different contact locations applied to the human body are presented, revealing the validity of the proposed methodology. Lastly, its benefit in the estimation of human dynamic states is demonstrated. These results add another layer to the online human ergonomics assessment framework developed in our laboratory, extending it to more realistic and varying interaction conditions.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s20164471