Evaluating the Impact of Motion Sensing Errors on Ergonomic Analysis

Abstract

The use of motion sensing technologies for ergonomic analysis of worker motions has gained increasing attention in construction. Using motion capture data enables extracting ergonomic assessment inputs more accurately than through a human observer. Accordingly, methods of collecting and analyzing human motion data have been developed to automate the ergonomic evaluation process for effective identification of ergonomic risk factors associated with manual operations. However, despite advancements in motion capture technologies, there is still inaccuracy associated with the resulting motion capture data, which leads to impreciseness of the output of the ergonomic assessment. This study investigates the impact that the imprecision of the motion capture data has on the results of ergonomic analysis, to evaluate the technical feasibility of a motion sensing approach to ergonomic analysis and to discuss the potential solutions by incorporating sensing errors into the motion analysis. Specifically, different possible sensing errors pertaining to a body joint location have been considered and the sensitivity of the errors on the results of ergonomic evaluation has been quantified. The results can be used to obtain an accurate and realistic adjustment for the results of ergonomic assessment based on the amount of error associated with any motion capture technology.