• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.23 no.60
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• pp.37-46
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• 2000

A biomechanical model of lower extremity in seated postures was developed to assess muscular activities of lower extremity involved in a variety of foot pedal operations. The model incorporated four rigid body segments with the twenty-four muscles to represent lower extremity This study deals with quasi-static movement to investigate dynamic movement effect in seated foot operation. It is found that optimization method which has been used for modeling the articulated body segments does not predict the forces generated from biarticular muscles and antagonistic muscles reasonably. So, the revised nonlinear optimization scheme was employed to consider the synergistic effects of biarticular muscles and the antagonistic muscle effects from the stabilization of the joint. For the model validation, three male subjects performed the experiments in which EMG activities of the nine lower extremity muscles were measured. Predicted muscle forces were compared with the corresponding EMG amplitudes and it showed no statistical difference. For the selection of optimal seated posture, a physiological meaningful criterion was developed for muscular load sharing developed. For exertion levels, the transition point of type F motor unit of each muscle is inferred by analyzing the electromyogram at the seated postures. Also, for predetermined seated foot operations exertion levels, the recruitment pattern is identified in the continuous exertion, by analyzing the electromyogram changes due to the accumulated muscle fatigue.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.955-968
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• 2010

Three-dimensional body data has been used in many industry fields including the apparel industry. This research used data from a study of the changes in lower body girth measurements from a 3D scan study of 25 female subjects aged 18 to 24 in four postures; a standing posture, a $120^{\circ}$ knee bend posture, a one pace stepping posture, and a sitting posture with a $90^{\circ}$ knee bend. We used the information on the difference between standing and seated measurements to adjust ease values for pants patterns an evaluation of the appearance, and the comfort of the pants. Waist girth in the sitting posture increased 8% compared to a standing posture and the hip girth measurement increased 7%. A basic pants pattern (pants A) with 2.4cm ease at the waist and 2.6cm ease at the hip was developed and a pants pattern (pants B) was developed using the rates of lower body girth change with a 5.7cm ease (8% change) at the waist and 7cm ease (7% change) at the hip. The appearance assessment items of pants A in a standing posture were higher than pants B. On the other hand, most appearance assessment items of pants B in a sitting posture were higher than pants A, especially the ease of pants back waistline and the appearance of the whole back. Comfort assessment items of pants B in both standing and sitting postures were higher than the comfort assessment items for pants A, especially the location of pants waistline, the ease of pants at the waistline, and the ease at the abdomen. In order to find the best level of ease for better appearance and comfort in both standing and sitting postures, 20 pants were constructed with ease values at the waist and hip in increments of 1.1cm in the range between the ease values of pants A and pants B. A fit test was conducted to compare the average appearance and comfort ratings that identified the pants with the best ease values at the waist and hip. The highest total mean was achieved in the pants with a waist ease of 4.6cm and hip ease of 4.8cm.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.51-62
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• 2006

In assessing risks related to working posture, pictures of postures are taken from various directions, which can be a source of observation error. Joint postures of the neck, lower back, knee, shoulder, and elbow were taken from 7 different viewing angles and 19 observers estimated joint angles by observing the pictures in 2-dimensional display. The joint angles were also measured using an optoelectronic motion measurement system. The estimation error increased as the viewing angle varies from the right side of the human body, but the patterns differ according to which joint angles were being observed. Guidelines to increase the validity of observation of joint angles were presented based on the results. In general, it is recommended to maintain the viewing angle within 20 degrees from the right side of the human body, while different ranges of viewing angle are recommended for each joint angle.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.167-173
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• 1998

Many workers like welders work in squatting postures with the object on the ground during an entire work shift. It is suspected that such prolonged squatting without any supporting stool would gradually cause musculoskeletal injuries to workers. This study is to examine the physical stress caused by the prolonged squatting and to recommend a safe work/rest schedule for a welding task with squatting posture based on the lab experiments. In this study, 8 healthy student subjects participated in the experiment. They maintained a squatting work posture for 16 minutes with 4 different stool height conditions: no stool; 10cm height; 15cm height; and 20cm height. Every 2 minutes, the discomfort was subjectively assessed with the magnitude estimation method for the whole body, lower back, upper leg and lower leg. Based on discomfort ratings, we found that a 10cm height stool relieved the workload most. Discomfort rating results also indicated that a 20cm height stool showed the highest workload, and the there were no difference in workload between a 15cm height stool and no stool. We recommend to use low height stools and to maintain such working postures no longer than 6 minutes for prolonged squatting tasks.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.31-36
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• 2021

This study aims to review observational methods for assessing postural loads such as OWAS, RULA and REBA, and to compare them, based on the literature survey. The literature was searched through academic database of ScienceDirect using the key words of observational methods, OWAS, RULA and REBA. The results exhibited that of the thee methods, RULA was cited in the literature and applied to manufacturing industries the most frequently. Although it has been known that RULA is appropriate for assessing upper body postures, it has been applied to healthcare and social work activities, agriculture, forestry, fishing, construction, mining and quarrying, which require unstable lower limb postures. The countries where more number of relevant studies have been carried out were USA, India, Brazil, UK, etc. It was recommended that of the three techniques, RULA may be better for assessing postural loads, because it evaluated postural loads more highly, irrespective of industry, work type and lower limb postures, and its assessment results had higher agreement rate with experts' assessments than those of OWAS and REBA. It is expected that the results of this study will be used as a guideline for selecting an appropriate observational method.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.90-94
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• 1997

Many workers like welders are working in squat sitting postures with te object on the ground for an entire work shift. It is suspected that such prolonged squat sitting without any supporting stool would gradually cause musculoskeletal injuries to workers. This study is to quantitatively evaluate the physical stress caused by the prolonged squat sitting and to recommend a safe work/rest schedule for the task with squat sitting posture based on the lab experiment. In this study, 8 healthy student subjects participated in the experiment. They maintained a squat sitting posture for 16 minutes with 4 different stool height conditions: no stool, 10cm hight, 15cm height, 20cm height. Every 2 minutes, the discomfort was subjectively assessed using the magnitude estimation method for the whole body, lower back, upper leg and lower leg. Based on discomfort rating, we found that 10cm height stool relieved the workload most. Discomfort rating results also indicated that 20cm height stool showed the heghest workload, and that there was no difference in workload between 15cm height and no stool. We recommend to provide the workers with 10cm height stool for prolonged squat sitting tasks.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1994.04a
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• pp.561-568
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• 1994

A man model can be used as an effective tool to design ergonomically sound products and workplaces, and subsequently evaluate them properly. For a man model to be truly useful, it must be integrated with a posture prediction model which should be capable of representing the human arm reach posture in the context of equipments and workspaces. Since the human movement possesses redundant degrees of freedom, accurate representation or prediction of human movement was known to be a difficult problem. To solve this redundancy problem, a psychophysical cost function was suggested in this study which defines a cost value for each joint movement angle. The psychophysical cost function developed integrates the psychophysical discomfort of joints and the joint range availability concept which has been used for redundant arm manipulation in robotics to predict the arm reach posture. To properly predict an arm reach posture, an arm reach posture prediction model was then developed in which a posture configuration that provides the minimum total cost is chosen. The predictivity of the psychophysical cost function was compared with that of the biomechanical cost function which is based on the minimization of joint torque. Here, the human body is regarded as a two-dimensional multi-link system which consists of four links ; trunk, upper arm, lower arm and hand. Real reach postures were photographed from the subjects and were compared to the postures predicted by the model. Results showed that the postures predicted by the psychophysical cost function closely simulated human reach postures and the predictivity was more accurate than that by the biomechanical cost function.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.65-79
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• 1994

A biomechanical model of lower extremity in seated postures was developed to assess muscular activities of lower extremity involved in a variety of foot pedal operations. The model incorporated four rigid body segments with the twenty-four muscles to represent lower extremity. This study deals with quasi-static movement to investigate dymanic movement effect in seated foot operation. It is found that optimization method which has been used for modeling the articulated body segments does not predict the forces generated from biarticular muscles and antagonistic muscles reasonably. So, the revised nonlinear optimization scheme was employed to consider the synergistic effects of biarticular muscles and the antagonistic muscle effects from the stabilization of the joint. For the model validation, three male subjects performen the experiments in which EMG activities of the nine lower extremity muscles were measured. Predicted muscle forces were compared with the corresponding EMG amplitudes and it showed no statistical difference. For the selection of optimal seated posture, a physiological meaningful criterion for muscular load sharing developed.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1994.04a
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• pp.124-135
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• 1994

A biomechanical model of lower extremity in seated postures was developed to assess muscular activities of lower extremity involved in a variety of foot pedal operations. It is found that nonlinear optimization method which has been used for modeling the articulated body segments does not predict the forces generated from biarticular muscles reasonably, so the revised nonlinear optimization scheme was employed to consider the synergistic effects of biarticular muscles in the model, assuming that the muscle forces are distributed proportionally based on their physiological cross sectional area and moment arm. The model incorporated four rigid body segments with the nine muscles to represent lower extreimity. For the model valida- tion, three male subjects performed the experiments in which EMG activities of the nine lower extremity muscles were measured. Predicted muscle forces were compared with the corresponding EMG amplitudes and it showed no statistical difference. The developed model can be used to design and to assess the pedals and foot-related equipments design.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-76
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• 2016

In speed skiing, aerodynamic forces play an important role in determining performance of the skier. To predict aerodynamic effects of the posture of the skier on alpine downhill skiing, we constructed equation of motion of the skier and performed the corresponding CFD simulations. Comparing drag and lift of three different skier postures, it has been shown that drag decreases significantly by tucking upper body to lower body and stretching arms forward. Also, aerodynamic lift which worked as downforce in standing posture worked upward in tuck posture, reducing friction force between snow and ski. This indicates that tuck posture have advantages over standing posture in dual mechanism, namely by reducing drag and also increasing lift. By this two-dimensional initial study we could reveal the general tendency of the aerodynamic force over the skier's body. This study not only provides a theoretical foundation for the athletes to understand the aerodynamic effects of skier postures but also shed a light on towards more accurate and rational three-dimensional CFD simulation of skiers in the near future study.