• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제29권3호
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• pp.311-320
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• 2010

This study aimed to examine the development and characteristics of the workers with upper limb musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders and to analyze the upper limb musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders for its relationship with the individual socio-demographic characteristics. This study investigated the effect on the limitations of physical activities using standardized surveillance tool and clinical diagnosis. Musculoskeletal symptoms and the limitations of physical activities were examined. The clinical diagnosis of musculoskeletal disorders were carried out by physical examination, radiological examination and electromyography-electroneuronography for 22 workers in kitchen hood assembly process and 50 workers in toggle process of leather product manufacturing. The proportion of workers with musculoskeletal disorders was higher and the DASH score was also statistically higher in female and aged workers with longer working hours, longer household working hours, less leisure/hobby activity and higher physical load. Physical activities component score increased in the following order: workers in normal health, workers with musculoskeletal symptoms, and workers with musculoskeletal disorders as clinically diagnosed. Score for each DASH component increased in the following order: sports/performing arts ability, social activities, specific physical functional activities, work or other regular daily activities, work ability, psychological activities, insomnia and upper limb symptoms. The overall and each component DASH scores were higher in workers with symptoms of status praesens and of more severity, and receiving medical intervention. Musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders are associated with individual socio-demographic characteristics, and DASH score for physical activities of upper limb was higher in workers with musculoskeletal disorders. Musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders have a remarkable epidemiological significance for physical activities, social activities, work or other regular daily activities, upper limb symptoms and insomnia, where work ability, sports/performing arts ability and preventive measure is needed.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.326-333
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• 2018

Background: Echocardiography involves strenuous postures of the upper limbs. This study explored the physical workload in the neck and upper limbs in sonographers performing echocardiography, and the extent to which the workload differs from than in other work tasks (other sonographic examinations, and nonsonographic tasks). Methods: The physical load was assessed by inclinometry, goniometry, and electromyography methods in 33 female sonographers during authentic work using three different echocardiography techniques and other work tasks. Results: Echocardiography was characterized by low velocities of the head, arms, and wrists, and a low proportion of muscular resting time in the forearms, in the transducer limb, and the computer limb. The transducer limb was more elevated in one of the techniques, but this technique also involved a higher proportion of muscular resting time of the trapezius muscle. We also found a high proportion of awkward wrist postures in the transducer wrist in all three techniques; in one due to prolonged flexion, and in the others due to prolonged extension. Other work tasks were less static, and were performed with higher upper arm and wrist velocities. Conclusion: None of the three echocardiography techniques was optimal concerning physical workload. Thus, to achieve more variation in physical load we recommend that the equipment be arranged so that the sonographer can alternate between two different techniques during the workday. We also propose alternation between echocardiography and nonsonographic tasks, in order to introduce variation in the physical workload. Clinical expertise should be used to achieve further improvements.

• 대한산업공학회지
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• 제37권3호
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• pp.209-215
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• 2011

The objective of this study was to determine whether there are differences in hand muscle activities (APB : abductor pollicis brevis, ED : extensor digitorum, ECU : extensor carpi ulnaris, and EI : extensor indicis) and subjective discomfort according to the three mouse sizes (small, medium, large) and two task types (pointing and scrolling). The mouse size and task type showed significant interaction effects on the total NEMG (p = 0.004) and on the NEMG of the abductor pollicis brevis muscle (p = 0.001). The total NEMG and the NEMG of APB showed the highest value in the 'scrolling' task using the 'small' mouse. However, the NEMG of the EI was different according to the mouse size, and the 'small' mouse showed the lowest value. The subjective discomfort was the lowest in the 'medium' mouse, and all nine subjects preferred the 'medium' size. The hand-size related anthropometric variables showed different correlations according to the task type and mouse size with the NEMGs and subjective discomfort. The results of this study could be used as a basic information for the determination of the proper mouse size according to the hand size.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제33권6호
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• pp.565-575
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of weight of load and time on the physical workload of repetitive upper-limb tasks with handling light weight loads using EMG and perceived discomfort, and to investigate the relationship between EMG and perceived discomfort for those repetitive tasks of moving light weight loads. Background: Repetitive upper-limb motion is known as one of the main risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders, and a lot of repetitive tasks are carried out while handling light weight loads in the industry. In evaluating the workload of repetitive tasks handling light weight loads, EMG and perceived discomfort can be used, though their relationship in those work conditions are not much investigated. Method: A laboratory experiment with 18 healthy males were conducted to record EMG signals from 5 muscle sites of the right arm and shoulder and rate perceived discomforts for the body parts and the whole body while carrying out repetitive materials-handling tasks for 52min. The subjects were divided into 3 groups which handled the loads of 1kg, 2kg and 3kg, respectively. ANOVAs were conducted to analyze the effects of the weight and time on RMS of EMG amplitude (normalized RMS: NRMS), median frequency of power spectrum of EMG (normalized MDF: NMDF) and perceived discomfort. The correlations between NRMS and NMDF and perceived discomfort were also analyzed. Results: Statistically significant muscular fatigue effects were not found from NRMS and NMDF in most muscles, while there were significant increases of discomfort as the task time elapsed. It was shown that there were an increasing trend of the muscular activity as the weight of load increased and a decreasing trend of median frequency of EMG of upper and lower arms as time elapsed. It was found that there were significant negative correlations between NMDFs from the lower arm and discomfort ratings, though the relationships were weak. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the working conditions adopted in this study were not enough to induce muscular fatigue, while there was significant increase in perceived discomfort. A further study is necessary to integrate the objective and subjective measures for more reliable and sensitive evaluation of workload of repetitive tasks of handling light weight loads. Application: This study can be used as a basic study for the evaluation of workload of repetitive tasks handling light weight loads.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.51-56
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• 2008

In these days, work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) is one of the issues in the shipbuilding industry. As the number of injured workers and demands for worker's compensation have rapidly increased, improvement of work conditions and environments to prevent WMSDs has been more demanded. To reduce WMSDs' hazards in the shipbuilding industry, simulation technique which showed it's ability of increasing the manufacturing productivity was applied, because simulation technique has the evaluation ability for a worker's danger level of production process by RULA(Rapid Upper Limb Assesment). In this research, worker's altitude had modeled and worker's action has simulated. After the caution level was evaluated, we pointed out clues which had high workload. To reduce work-load, we applied ergonomic principles for improving working conditions and environments. Improved working conditions and environments were simulated using human modelling and simulation and their workload were evaluated again.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제30권6호
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• pp.695-703
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• 2011

Objective: This study was to investigate the effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures on the subjective discomfort rating, heart rate, and muscle activities. Background: Although generally many checklists such as OWAS, RULA, and REBA were applied to evaluate various body postures, the body postures were might be overestimated or underestimated because each body part(i.e., back, shoulder, and elbow etc.) was evaluated separately, and then added all rates of individual body parts to assess an overall risk level for the body posture in these methodologies. Methods: A total of 20 participants maintained 14 postures which were combinations of back, shoulder, and elbow flexion angles and then muscle activities, subjective discomfort, and heart rates were collected every three minute during a sustained 15 minute and 0.5kg weight holding task. Four muscle groups were investigated: erector spine, anterior deltoid, upper trapezius, triceps brachii. Results: Results showed that subjective discomfort was the lowest when the angle of back and shoulder were both $0^{\circ}s$, while the body posture with $45^{\circ}$ of back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder angle was rated as the most subjective discomfort posture. In general, the subjective discomfort ratings increased as back and shoulder flexion angles increased. It was noted that, however, the subjective discomfort of body posture with a $45^{\circ}$ back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle was lower than that of body posture with a $0^{\circ}$ back and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle. The research findings of heart rates and muscle activities showed similar results for the analyses of subjective discomfort ratings. Conclusions: The possible limitations of the current ergonomics evaluation techniques which assessing a body posture with summing all body part score after individually analyzed in this study. Based on the analyses of subjective discomfort, heart rate, and muscle activities, it was recommended that a use of effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures would be considered when one evaluates work-load for various working postures. Application: These findings can be used for developing a more accurate assessment checklist for working posture as well as preventing musculoskeletal disorders of workers in workplaces.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제20권8호
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• pp.875-881
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• 2014

The redundancy resolution of the seven DOF (Degree of Freedom) upper limb exoskeleton is key to the synchronous motion between a robot and a human user. According to the seven DOF human arm model, positioning and orientating the wrist can be completed by multiple arm configurations that results in the non-unique solution to the inverse kinematics. This paper presents analysis on the kinematic and dynamic aspect of the human arm movement and its effect on the redundancy resolution of the seven DOF human arm model. The redundancy of the arm is expressed mathematically by defining the swivel angle. The final form of swivel angle can be represented as a linear combination of two different swivel angles achieved by optimizing two cost functions based on kinematic and dynamic criteria. The kinematic criterion is to maximize the projection of the longest principal axis of the manipulability ellipsoid of the human arm on the vector connecting the wrist and the virtual target on the head region. The dynamic criterion is to minimize the mechanical work done in the joint space for each of two consecutive points along the task space trajectory. The contribution of each criterion on the redundancy was verified by the post processing of experimental data collected with a motion capture system. Results indicate that the bimodal redundancy resolution approach improved the accuracy of the predicted swivel angle. Statistical testing of the dynamic constraint contribution shows that under moderate speeds and no load, the dynamic component of the human arm is not dominant, and it is enough to resolve the redundancy without dynamic constraint for the realtime application.

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
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• 제13권9호
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• pp.3999-4008
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• 2012

본 연구는 물리치료사의 직무에 따른 Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorder(WMSD)s에 대한 증상을 파악하기 위하여 통증치료군(56명), 성인 운동치료군(53명), 소아 운동치료군(22명)을 대상으로 근골격계 증상조사표와 Rapid Upper Limb Assessment(RULA)를 사용하여 근골격계 증상 및 작업의 유해도를 알아보기 위해 실시하였다. 그 결과 통증치료군 69.6%, 성인 운동치료군 84.9%, 소아 운동치료군 81.8%, 평균 77.9%의 자각 증상 호소율을 보였다. RULA를 이용한 인간공학적 위험 평가에서 Final Wrist & Arm Score와 Final Score에서 성인 운동치료군이 단위 시간당 작업 부하량이 가장 많은 것으로 나타났으며 Action Level은 통증치료군이 평균 $3.0{\pm}0.9$, 성인 운동치료군은 $3.3{\pm}0.6$, 소아 운동치료군은 $3.2{\pm}0.8$로 성인 운동치료군에서 가장 높았다. 근골격계 증상에 영향을 미치는 요인 중 키, 가사 노동, 육체적 부담정도, 과거 사고가 통계적으로 유의하였다. 이에 따라 물리치료사의 WMSDs를 방지하기 위한 장비 및 교육시스템이 보급되어야 할 것으로 사료된다.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.117-122
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• 2022

This paper proposes a method for evaluating the work of manufacturing workers using MediaPipe as a risk factor for musculoskeletal diseases. Recently, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) caused by repeated working attitudes in industrial sites have emerged as one of the biggest problems in the industrial health field while increasing public interest. The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency presents tools such as NIOSH Lifting Equations (NIOSH), OWAS (Ovako Working-posture Analysis System), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and Rapid Entertainment Assessment (REBA) as ways to quantitatively calculate the risk of musculoskeletal diseases that can occur due to workers' repeated working attitudes. To compensate for these shortcomings, the system proposed in this study obtains the position of the joint by estimating the posture of the worker using the posture estimation learning model of MediaPipe. The position of the joint is calculated using inverse kinetics to obtain an angle and substitute it into the REBA equation to calculate the load level of the working posture. The calculated result was compared to the expert's image-based REBA evaluation result, and if there was a result with a large error, feedback was conducted with the expert again.

• 한국산림과학회지
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• 제110권2호
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• pp.210-216
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• 2021

우리나라 모든 산업에서 근골격계질환은 작업자들의 안전에 큰 영향을 미치고 있으며, 산림작업은 산업안전보건법에 따라 근골격계 부담작업으로 분류된다. 특히 벌도 및 가지제거작업은 주로 인력작업으로 실시되고 있으며, 작업원의 안정성 확보를 위해 작업자세에 대한 평가가 필요하다. 따라서 본 연구는 체인톱을 이용한 벌도 및 가지제거작업의 작업자를 대상으로 세가지 인간공학적 분석 도구(OWAS, RULA, REBA)를 이용하여 위험도를 평가하고, 평가기법별 작업자세에 대한 영향인자를 분석하였다. 벌도와 가지제거작업자세의 위험도는 RULA, OWAS, REBA 순으로 높게 평가되었으며, 대부분 2-3단계로 작업자세의 즉각 변경조치는 요구되지 않았다. 하지만 벌도작업에서 허리와 다리를 굽힌자세와 가지제거작업에서 벌도목 위에서 작업하는 자세는 위험도가 매우 높게 분석되었다. 또한 벌도작업의 경우 산지경사, 가지제거작업의 경우는 지상에서부터 벌도목 높이가 작업위험도 평가에 영향이 높은 것으로 분석되었다. 따라서 산림작업에 있어서 작업자의 안전성을 확보하기 위해 작업부하가 낮은 자세(벌도작업: 쪼그리는 자세, 가지제거작업: 허리와 다리가 곧은 자세)로 작업하는 것이 바람직한 것으로 사료된다.