An innovative integrated solution to support digital postural assessment using the TACOs methodology

Abstract

The diversification of work as well as the challenges of modern industrial tasks make manual ergonomic assessment tools (i.e., checklist, excel-based worksheet) time consuming and strongly related to the ergonomist’s experience. Recent advancements in wearable sensors technology offer new perspectives in terms of integrating human-monitoring solutions with traditional ergonomics methods by movements’ digitization. Furthermore, digital posture assessment plays a critical role in the context of Industry 5.0, promoting worker well-being and productivity by identifying ergonomic risks and optimizing work environments. Also, leveraging advanced technologies for posture assessment enables proactive intervention strategies to mitigate musculoskeletal disorders and enhance overall workplace safety and efficiency. The present study proposes an innovative hardware and software solution which allows even non-expert designers or ergonomists to carry out a reliable postural ergonomic assessment according to well-known ergonomic methods, speeding up the analysis and providing accurate information. The setup consists of a wearable suit and its proprietary software tool specifically programmed to carry out the ergonomic assessment according to the Time-Based Assessment COmputerized Strategy (TACOs) method. The setup has been preliminarily tested in a controlled environment simulating a real industrial scenario and a comparison with standard ergonomic practices has been performed. The Mann-Whitney U test returned a p-value of [2.198e-11] < α [0.05] demonstrating how the solution proposes results which are numerically and qualitatively enhanced while showing the practical utility of the suggested technical setup and the validity of the suggested digital technique in retrieving and recognizing the workers’ posture.