Analysis of the wardrobe scale of the stacking operation suitable for the elderly

Abstract

In order to objectively quantify the comfort of the wardrobe stacking operation based on elderly people's muscle activities and subjective evaluations and to determine appropriate operation heights, eighteen self-care elderly people were selected to conduct the experiment of the wardrobe stacking operation, so that the problem that the existing wardrobe design scale did not meet the needs of Chinese elderly people could be solved. The sEMG indicators of the right upper-limb pectoralis major (PM), biceps brachii (BB), triceps brachii (TB), anterior deltoid (AD), and brachioradialis (BR) were tested. The results of this study were acquired though analyzing sEMG indicators, the fitted curves of the comprehensive indicators obtained by principal component analysis (PCA) and the subjective evaluation scores of 4 groups of subjects (F150, F160, M160, M170). For the wardrobe stacking operation, the biceps brachii, anterior deltoid and pectoralis major were the main power muscles of the upper-limb. The appropriate height ranges of different subject groups were obtained, i.e., F150 was more comfortable in the range of 704–832 mm, while F160 was in the range of 832–896 mm. Besides, M160 was 704–960 mm and M170 was 896–1088 mm. Combined with the results of the subjective evaluations, the suitable height range for stacking operation of all elderly whose heights were between 1500 and 179 mm was 704–1024 mm which could ensure the comfort of the using and the wardrobe layer panel could be adjusted in this range according to the storage categories and spacing distance that elderly people need.