• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.590-599
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• 2009

In this paper, a method of modeling seat belts on crew seat during dynamic seat testing was studied. The body segments of the occupant were modeled with joints. The joints consisted with various stiffnesses, dampings, and frictions. Three types of seat belt restraint systems were investigated. The analysis for on the injury assessment of helicopter's crew under drop impact was conducted. The effectiveness of the seat belt system for crashworthiness and safety was evaluated. As the results of impact analysis, head, neck and spine of the crew can be easily damaged in the vertical direction more than the longitudinal direction. Based on the verified model, behavior of human body was studied with three-point restraint systems. The displacement and injury level of the 12-point restraint system was the smallest.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.7 s.262
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• pp.764-776
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• 2007

On the human-rifle system, the human body is affected by the firing impact. The firing impact will reduce the firing accuracy and change the initial shooting posture. Therefore the study of biomechanical characteristics using human-rifle modeling and numerical investigation is needed. The musculoskeletal model is developed by finite element method using beam and spar elements. In this study structural analysis has been performed in order to investigate the human body impact by firing of 5.56mm small caliber machine gun. The firing experiments with the standing shooting postures were performed to verify analytical results. The result if this study shows analytical displacements of the human-rifle system and experimental displacements of the real firing. As the results, the analytical displacement and stress of human body are presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.129-136
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• 2009

The estimation of muscle force is important to understand the roles of the muscles. The static optimization method can be used to figure out the individual muscle forces. However, muscle forces during the movement including muscle co-contraction cannot be considered by the static optimization. In this study, a hybrid static optimization method was introduced to find the well-matched muscle forces with EMG signals under muscle co-contraction conditions. To validate the developed algorithm, the 3D motion analysis and its corresponding inverse dynamics using the musculoskeletal modeling software (SIMM) were performed on heel-rise movements. Results showed that the developed algorithm could estimate the acceptable muscle forces during heel-rise movement. These results imply that a hybrid numerical approach is very useful to obtain the reasonable muscle forces under muscle co-contraction conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.785-790
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• 2011

The goal of this study is to estimate the force acting on the knee joint in the human body by using the Hilltype muscle model based on a musculoskeletal model of the human lower extremity in the sagittal plane. For estimating the force applied, the human leg is modeled using multi-body modeling. This leg model comprises biarticular muscles acting on two joints of the upper and lower limbs, and the muscles include some of the major muscles such as the hamstring. In order to analyze the uncertainty of the applied forces acting on the knee joint, statistical distributions of human body, leg part, parameters are required and to obtain the parameter's statistical characteristic of the part sample survey method is employed. Finally, by using the sensitivity information of the parameters, the force acting on the knee joint can be estimated.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.806-814
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• 2019

One of the future weapon systems is the individual smart weapon which has a structure mounted on the forearm of soldiers. The structure may cause injuries or affect the accuracy of fire due to its impact on joints when shooting. This paper proposes human-impact interaction modeling and a verification methodology in order to estimate the impact of fire applied to the forearm. For this purpose, a human musculoskeletal model was constructed and the joints' behavior in various shooting positions was simulated. In order to verify the simulation results, an impact testing device substituting the smart weapon was made and the experiment was performed on a real human body. This paper compares the simulation results performed under various impact conditions and the experimental values in terms of accuracy and introduces methods to complement them. The results of the study are expected to be a basis for a reliable human-impact interaction modeling, and smart individual weapon development.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

Whole body fatigue detection is an important phenomenon and the factors contributing to whole body fatigue can be controlled if a mathematical model is available for its assessment. This research study aims at developing a model that categorizes whole body exertion into fatigued and non-fatigued states based on physiological and perceived variables. For this purpose, logistic regression was used to categorize the fatigued and non-fatigued subject as dichotomous variable. Normalized mean power frequency of eight muscles from 25 subjects was taken as physiological variable along with the heart rate while Borg scale ratings were taken as perceived variables. The logit function was used to develop the logistic regression model. The coefficients of all the variables were found and significance level was checked. The detection accuracy of the model for fatigued and non-fatigues subjects was 83% and 95% respectively. It was observed that the mean power frequency of anterior deltoid and the Borg scale ratings of upper and lower extremities were significant in predicting the whole body fatigued when evaluated dichotomously (p < 0.05). The findings can help in better understanding of the importance of combined physiological and perceived exertion in designing the rest breaks for workers involved in squat lifting tasks in industrial as well as health sectors.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.206-211
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• 2017

Background: Self-reported low back pain (LBP) has been evaluated in relation to material handling lifting tasks, but little research has focused on relating quantifiable stressors to LBP at the individual level. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Composite Lifting Index (CLI) has been used to quantify stressors for lifting tasks. A chemical exposure can be readily used as an exposure metric or stressor for chemical risk assessment (RA). Defining and quantifying lifting nonchemical stressors and related adverse responses is more difficult. Stressor-response models appropriate for CLI and LBP associations do not easily fit in common chemical RA modeling techniques (e.g., Benchmark Dose methods), so different approaches were tried. Methods: This work used prospective data from 138 manufacturing workers to consider the linkage of the occupational stressor of material lifting to LBP. The final model used a Bayesian random threshold approach to estimate the probability of an increase in LBP as a threshold step function. Results: Using maximal and mean CLI values, a significant increase in the probability of LBP for values above 1.5 was found. Conclusion: A risk of LBP associated with CLI values > 1.5 existed in this worker population. The relevance for other populations requires further study.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.279-291
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• 2015

Objective: The purpose of the study is to evaluate appropriate weight for aged farmers in manually handling livestock feed in bags using ergonomic methods. Background: In the livestock industry in South Korea, despite the trend of aging of labor manpower, heavy items are still manually handled in many farms. In particular, among stockbreeding works, the handling of feed in bags weighing 25~30kg is reported as a cause of frequent injuries and musculoskeletal system diseases. However, studies on the standard for recommended weight allowed considering the physical characteristics of aged farmers older than 60 years with greatly decreased physical strength and muscle strength are insufficient. Method: To evaluate appropriate weight for handling of heavy livestock feed in bags, physical techniques for measuring recognized levels of physical work loads, the NLE (NIOSH lifting equation) a method that is an observation type technique, and an ergonomic modeling technique to predict compressive force imposed on L5/S1 were used. Subjects who participated in the experiment were organized into two groups of males/females with mean age exceeding 60 years, and lifting tasks were evaluated for nine weight levels. Results: Based on the results of psychophysical measurement, females showed a tendency of more drastic increases compared to males when weight was over 19kg. The results of estimation of regression models for the weight, 18.0 kg ($r^2=0.97$) and 15.3kg ($r^2=0.97$) were evaluated as stable load for males and females, respectively. In addition, both the observation type evaluation and ergonomic model evaluation showed stable loads in a range of 15~18kg. Conclusion: Given the results of the study, the weight of the feed in bags currently distributed to farms can become a cause of not only overexertion but also farm work related disasters such as musculoskeletal disorders and safety accidents. Providing livestock feed in bags weighing not more than 19kg for aged farmers is judged desirable, and managerial improvement for this matter is considered necessary. Application: The results of the present study can be utilized as useful data for institutional improvement of the weight of livestock feed in bags.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.11-27
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• 2005

The objectives of this study are to analyze representative wrist postures while using hand tools and parts at general assembly processes, to evaluate perceived discomfort on the wrist when external loads are present, and to suggest an evaluation and prediction model of perceived discomfort. Sixteen subjects participated in an experiment to appraise perceived discomfort. Three types of the wrist postures with five levels of non-neutralities were analyzed when five levels of external load were applied to each posture. The ANOVA results showed that the perceived discomfort of wrist postures was significantly affected by both the wrist posture and external load (p$<$0.001). It was also shown that some of the interactions between external loads and the wrist postures(Flexion/$Extension^*$Load, Flexion/$Extension^*$supination/pronation, ulnar/radial $deviation^*$supination/pronation) were significant(p$<$0.001). The result implies that a new posture classification scheme for workload assessment methods may be needed to reflect such effects of external load and wrist posture. A regression model of perceived discomfort was developed with respect to wrist posture and external load from the experimental data. A subsequent experiment revealed that the correlation coefficient between the predicted values of perceived discomfort from the model and the actual values obtained from the experiment was about 0.98. It is expected that the results help to properly estimate the body stress resulting from worker's postures and external loads and can be used as a valuable design guideline to analyze potential hazard of musculoskeletal diseases in industry.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.691-701
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• 2017

The barbell squat is a fundamental physical exercise for strengthening the lower body and core muscles. It is an integral part of training and conditioning programs in sports, rehabilitation, and fitness. In this paper, we proposed a virtual test framework for squat exercises using a Smith machine to simulate joint torques and muscle forces, based on an integrated product-human model and motion synthesis algorithms. We built a muscular skeletal human model with boundary conditions modeling the interactions between the human body and a machine or the ground. To validate the model, EMG, external forces, and squat motions were captured through physical experiments by varying the foot position. A regression-based motion synthesis algorithm was developed based on the captured squat motions to generate a new motion for a given foot position. The proposed approach is expected to reduce the need for physical experiments in the development of training programs.