• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.469-474
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• 2013

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the risk factors of MSDs for the types of office work. Background: Physical risk factors of VDT(Video Display Terminal) associated with shoulder and neck musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) include static work postures and workstation status. Method: In this study, office work was divided into data search, data entry and design work(drawings, etc.), and then we were surveyed 7 major work places which was included these works. We recorded working postures and obtained still images, depending on the types of office work. Then, RULA(Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) and ROSA(Rapid Office Strain Assessment) were used to analysis the risk factors. Results: The results of RULA showed that design work was under risk levels and required change, but ROSA showed that data entry and design work were high risk. The RULA is to evaluate the level of risk factors based on the working posture; on the other hand, the ROSA is to consider the use of peripheral, same as chair, keyboard/mouse, monitor and computer workstations. Conclusion: Conclusions of this study, the office work is necessary to identify the risk factors caused by the use of peripheral, as well as working posture.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.654-661
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• 2015

Stairs are the most popular obstacles in buildings and factories. To enlarge the application areas of a field robotic platform, stair-climbing is very important mission. One important reason why a stair-climbing is difficult is that stairs are various in sizes. To achieve autonomous climbing of various-sized stairs, dynamic modeling is essential. In this research, an inverse dynamic modeling is performed to enable an autonomous stair climbing. Stair-climbing robotic platform with flip locomotion, named FilpBot, is analyzed. The FlipBot platform has advantages of robust stair-climbing of various sizes with constant speed, but the autonomous operation is not yet capable. Based on external constraints and the postures of the robot, inverse dynamic models are derived. The models are switched by the constraints and postures to analyze the continuous motion during stair-climbing. The constraints are changed according to the stair size, therefore the analysis results are different each other. The results of the inverse dynamic modeling are going to be used in motor design and autonomous control of the robotic platform.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.271-282
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• 2003

Automotive occupant packaging has been a part of main ergonomics interests, especially, in terms of driver's posture. Previous research on driver's posture has mainly focused on the initial optimal posture for driving sedans. However, customer preferences on cars are shifting from sedans to RV and automobile manufacturing companies seek to understand temporal changes in drivers' posture according to driving environment. So the main aim of this study was to develop a driver's posture measurement system during driving and investigate casual changes due to duration, car type, traffic flow. Four male drivers participated in the experiments during one week. It was shown that considerable changes in their postures were caused with respect to driving environment, which implies that not only static optimal postures but their dynamic changes should be taken into consideration for proper design and evaluation of interior packaging. The research is expected to help packaging designers understand human drivers so as to improve their comfort.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.119-124
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• 2003

Despite rapid technological advance and increased automation facilities, many jobs and activities in our living require manual materials handling(MMH). These include wide variety of activities such as moving things, lifting bags. boxes or cartons, etc. Many studies found that handle could affect on maximum acceptable weight of lifting, but there were few studies f3r the effects of work posture and coupling in lifting tote box. This study performed that ten male college students were required to lift a tote box with and without handle for three postures (bending, straight, right angle posture). From the experiment, following results were obtained. (1) MVC reduced maximum 23% by type of handle. (2) MVC was highest in straight posture, but was lowest in right angle posture. (3) As a result of ANOVA, MVC paid attention to posture and coupling. (p<0.01) (4) To all handle types, biceps brachii activity was increased in right angle posture. but reduced in straight posture. (5) To all posture, biceps brachii activity was most lively in no handle. The results of MVC measurement, subjective rating, EMG analysis, statistic analysis showed that maximum acceptable weight of lifting was influenced by type of handle and straight posture was more comfortable than other postures. Based on these results, it was concluded that acceptable weight of lifting has to differ for work posture and coupling.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.144-150
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• 2012

A survey was carried out to understand and analyze the characteristics of the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders among farmers of pears, grapes, cucumbers, eggplants and various vegetables. One hundred and forty farmers participated in the study. It was found that task characteristics differ according to crops and the gender of the farmers. The fruits farmers mainly assume arm-elevated postures while vegetables farmers mostly take bent-back or squatting postures. The symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders are mostly reported in the low back, shoulder, and knee. Though the rates of symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders were not much different among the crops, the fruits farmers showed relatively higher rate of symptoms in the shoulder and neck than those of other crops. The rate of symptoms of female farmers was higher than that of male farmers, which is the similar results of other studies. The relatively low correlationship between the task characteristics and the rate of symptomes might be caused by the fact that most farmers are involved in various agricultural tasks that are not much different among different crops.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.235-245
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• 2005

The changes in korean economic environment, from quantitative to qualitative growth of economy, go with making desperate efforts, that is, companies have put through many technical improvements, quality control, improvement of service, and so forth. Enterprises cut the number of employees through labor-management adjustment, so that a shortage of labor caused. An increase in intension of labor brought about growing the proportion of occupational diseases which is musculoskeletal diseases. Because of a rapid change in society and a change in our circumstances, we have many difficulties in examine a business disease closely. In support corroboration of relevance on admission of business, a criterion for dudging afford a basis for a causal relationship of medical science, take the state of working conditions into consideration, and at the same time, give a adaptable decision based on the purpose and point of "The Labor Standard Law" as well as "The Law about Industrial Accident Compensation insurance". In conclusion, it is necessary for the dental hygienists 10 reduce the on-duty hours a day, to make good postures in working, and to remove the stressful conditions in order to reduce the incidence of the lumbago. Good working postures, appropriate rest time, and early detection, care and education of the lumbago could be recommended for the dental hygienists.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.426-433
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• 2010

This study was conducted to develop a pull-type sprayer which performs the safe spraying with improved ergonomic postures while pesticide spraying of roses in floricultural facilities. The performance of the ergonomically designed sprayer was analyzed with a comparison of a conventional spray method. The pull-type sprayer, consisting of power pump, hose and nozzle parts was designed to manually pull and spray to upward and horizontal directions. From the analysis of postures with the RULA method, the labor load to arm and wrist using the pull-type sprayer was less than that with conventional power sprayer, so that the intensity of labor reduces. Working capacity with pull-type sprayer was two-fold greater than the conventional power sprayer. After performing pesticide spraying with the pull-type sprayer, the operating cost was reduced to \585,000/yr, which is 79% less than that of cost (\2,197,500/yr) for using conventional power sprayer.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.124-131
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• 2013

Extraction and representation of postures and/or gestures from human activities in videos have been a focus of research in this area of action recognition. With various applications cropping up from different fields, this paper seeks to improve the performance of these action recognition machines by proposing a shape-based silhouette-edge descriptor for the human body. Information entropy, a method to measure the randomness of a sequence of symbols, is used to aid the selection of vital key postures from video frames. Morphological operations are applied to extract and stack edges to uniquely represent different actions shape-wise. To classify an action from a new input video, a Hausdorff distance measure is applied between the gallery representations and the query images formed from the proposed procedure. The method is tested on known public databases for its validation. An effective method of human action annotation and description has been effectively achieved.

• Journal of Korean Medical Ki-Gong Academy
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.148-159
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• 2001

The Spreading-Qi recorded curative effect with a long history. I studied the Qi-therapy through train of the Qi-sender. methods of the Spreading-Qi and clinical application of the Spreading-Qi. 1. Train of the Qi-sender. Sitting, standing and ling postures can all be applied as training postures for training Qi. Qi grows in Lower Dan(elixir field) and circulates in heavenly circuits by static Qi. Training Qi by dynamic Qi is a fundamental exercise for the maneuvers to conduct Qi. 2. Methods of the Spreading-Qi, Breathe naturally concentrate the mind on Lower Dan(elixir field). When exhaling. Mindwill accompanies Qi to go to the Conception Vessel(CV) and Governor Vessel(GV), conduct Qi to the palms or fingers and emit Qi, with the emitting site touching or leaving the treated region. 3. Clinical application of the Spreading-Qi, its wide range of indications. 4. The Spreading-Qi is similar to Western 'Healing' and 'Hands of light'. Mind will accompanies energy to go to hand and emit energy to the treated region.

• 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.