• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.2191-2204
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• 1993

A sensor system has been developed to measure the posture(position and orientation) of mobile robots working in industrial environments. The proposed sensor system consists of a CCD camera, retro-reflective landmarks, a strobe unit and an image processing board. The proposed hardware system can be built in economic price compared to commercial vision systems. The system has the capability of measuring the posture of mobile robots within 60 msec when a 386 personal computer is used as the host computer. The experimental results demonstrated a remarkable performance of the proposed sensor system in the posture measurement of mobile robots - the average error in position is less than 3 mm and the average error in orientation is less than 1.5.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.704-712
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• 2018

This study analyzed working postures using the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) to improve work clothes for construction workers. A video taken at a construction work site was stopped at regular intervals and the postures of relevant body parts proposed by OWAS was recorded. Additionally, based on analysis of the working postures code, the level of work action for each postures was classified from stage I to IV. General workers frequently straightened or bent forward at the waist, and used their legs to stand, bend, or walk. Wood workers moved extensively from the waist, keeping their legs relatively straight and their arms held below their shoulders, repeatedly tapping with a hammer weighing less than 10.0kg. Rebar bending workers mainly bent forward at the waist, with both legs bent or standing with one leg bent. Rebar transport and fixing workers walked with the waist straight, and occasionally one or both hands held above the shoulders. Their work also involved holding a hook, which weigh less than 10.0kg, in their hands, and the difficult task of lifting and placing long rebars, which weigh from 10.0 to 20.0kg or more. Concrete pouring workers bent or twisted their back to the side. Therefore, this study suggests that design goals should be different when developing workwear for each type of worker.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.207-214
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• 1996

Main cause of low back pain is a poor posture. Most low back pains are due to a poor posture. The poor posture induces muscle tension and finaliy low back pain. The poor posture arehabitually trained from the childhood by the environmetal factors. In general, maintaining good posture during working and sleeping hours are the first line of defence against back pam. (1) Supine posture is the easiest posture that relaxes and fixes muscles. Supine posture is thus a starting position for on exercise. Lying down releases the weight pressures of head and shoulder and thus body can be relaxed and extended which are helpful for treating back pain. However, supine posture can increase the pressure in ribcage posture aspect and disphragram due to visceral oragans. (2) Sitting in one position for a long time results in fatigue and relaxation of spinal muscies. Finally, body strength is weakened and sitting posture will become poor. If this poor posture continues for a longer time, pain will be accompanied due to overelongation of muscle ligaments. The habitual poor posture could induce intervertebral disc distortion. If the intervertebral disc is damaged, sitting in one position or movement causes pain. (3) Abnormal lumbar curve induces the tention of abdominal muscle and paravertebral muscle groups as well as tention of lower limb muscle group connected to pelvis. For a person with weak body strength, muscle relaxation increases curvature in lumbar, chest and cervical regions. This will induce a pelvic anterior tilting of the imaginary line between A. S. I. S. and P. S. I. S. Hip joint extensor muscle acts on releasing the pelvic anterior tilting. Contrections of hamstring muscle and femoral muscle recover the imaginary line between A.S.LS. and P.S.I.S. from pelvic anterior tilting. thus, contraction of rectus abdominis muscle are required to maintain the normal lumbar curve.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.43-52
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• 2005

A two-dimensional posture measurement system was developed to evaluate the risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) easily on various conditions of work. The posture measurement system is an essential tool to analyze the workload for preventing work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Although several posture measurement systems have been developed for workload assessment, some restrictions in industry still exist because of its difficulty on measuring work postures. In this study, an image recognition algorithm was developed based on a neural network method to measure work posture. Each joint angle of human body was automatically measured from the recognized images through the algorithm, and the measurement system makes it possible to evaluate the risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders easily on various working conditions. The validation test on upper body postures was carried out to examine the accuracy of the measured joint angle data from the system, and the results showed good measuring performance for each joint angle. The differences between the joint angles measured directly and the angles measured by posture measurement software were not statistically significant. It is expected that the result help to properly estimate physical workload and can be used as a postural analysis system to evaluate the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in industry.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.132-143
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• 2017

While working in an industrial environment which requires extended periods of upright posture; workers tend to develop muscle fatigue due to the constant load on lower-limb muscles. In addition, when working while bending knees; muscle fatigue of lower back and hamstrings is increased due to the abnormal posture. This can lead to damage of muscles, induce musculoskeletal disorders, and reduce long-term working efficiency. Recent medical studies have shown that long-term working in an upright posture can induce musculoskeletal disorders such as foot fatigue, edema, pain and varicose veins. Likewise, medical and rehabilitation expenses have grown due to the increase in musculoskeletal conditions suffered by workers. For this problem, we aim to develop a device that can reduce the physical fatigue on the lower limbs by supporting the weight of workers during the extended periods of upright and bending postures in the industrial environments. In this paper, we have designed and manufactured a wearable weight support system; with a user intention algorithm that the users can maintain various postures. For validation of the developed system, we measured the muscle activity of the users wearing the system with EMG sensors.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.21 no.2 s.60
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• pp.57-68
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• 2006

This study was designed to provide basic data on preventive plans by affecting factors that have analysed on musculoskeletal diseases. The survey were conducted from July 1 to 30, 2004 among 600 hair dressers working in Seoul and Gwangju using self-administration questionnaire. The results of this study are summarized as follows: The pain experience rate of musculoskeletal diseases. in the last one yea was 55.2%. 35.7% of respondents answered they had pain on shoulders, 30.6% had pain on legs and feet, 28.9% had pain on waist, 26.8% had hands, fingers and wrist, 22.3% had pain on necks and 17.6% had pain arms and elbows more than disease on necks, shoulders, arms and elbows, hands, fingers and wrists, waist, shoulders legs and feet. The prevalence rate of the last week was 40.3%. The prevalence rate in each body parts of the last week was 23.3% on legs and feet, 21.2% on shoulders, 20.8% on waist, 14.9% on hands, fingers and wrists, 14.4% on necks, 9.3% on arms. The affecting factors on musculoskeletal disease index were analysed by multiple linear regression analysis. there are working posture$(\beta=0.27)$; authority of task$(\beta=0.18)$, self-conscious stress $(\beta=0.16)$, age$(\beta=0.14)$, physical burden from work$(\beta=0.13)$, and task required$(\beta=0.10)$. Determinant coefficients was 22.7%. Based on the results above, working posture, job stress and physical burden from task are highly related with pain. In order to prevent musculoskeletal disease of hairdressers, working posture shall be improved and leisure opportunities to relieve stress, and health management education shall be provided.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.81-85
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• 2009

Work related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) was a leading cause of sick leave and injuries in the industries of our country. Posture was an important consideration in the design of work method and workplaces, because it affected the ability of workers to use various equipments and influenced how long they could perform their job without feeling discomfort, fatigue, and musculoskeletal disorders. Imbalanced lower limb postures such as a squatting posture were awkward working postures common to the shipbuilding shops, farms, automobiles assembly lines in our country. Different awkward working postures were known to be associated with specific musculoskeletal disorders. Eight postures in lower limb postures divided into balanced and imbalanced postures were evaluated by electromyographic(EMG) activity for lower limb muscles. Twelve male subjects participated in this study. This paper was to analyze the effects of lower limb muscles workload according to lower limb postures(knee angle) and working time. The ANOVA results showed that most EMG root mean square(RMS) values were statistically significant effect according to lower limb postures(knee angle) and working time. Therefore, the results of this study will provide the basis to evaluate workload of lower limb postures correctly adopted by workers in various jobs and the ergonomic reference to prevent WMSDs.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2009

Repetitive movement, inadequate working posture, overuse of force, physical contact with sharp edge, vibration and temperature were well known risk factors of WMSDs (Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders). Many researchers have investigated the relationship between inadequate working postures and incidences of WMSDs of the upper extremities, whereas relatively few researchers have tried to evaluate workload associated with the lower-body postures. The effects of lower-limb postures including various knee flexion angles on the subjective discomfort, heart rate and EMG of lower-limb muscles were investigated in this study. Thirty graduate students were asked to maintain thirteen different body postures, and heart rate and EMG data of five muscle groups (electro spine, biceps femoris, vastus medialis, gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior) from each posture were collected during fifteen minutes sustaining tasks. All participants were also asked to report their discomfort ratings of body parts. Results showed that high subjective discomfort ratings and heart rates were reported at the postures of knee angles of $60^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$, whereas low discomfort ratings were founded at the postures of chair heights with 20cm, 40cm, and sitting with crossed legged. The change of median frequency for each muscle group during fifteen minutes tasks was investigated for each body posture to evaluate the relationship between muscle fatigue and body posture. It was found that the trends of changes of median frequency were different based on muscle group as well as lower-limb body posture from this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.79-83
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• 2001

Posture of the upper limbs in field works is known to be an important risk factor associated with CTD(Cumulative Trauma Disorders). In particular, uncomfortable posture and highly repetitive works in shipbuilding industry(for instance, sand blasting, grinding and blast painting, etc) made workers exposed to a great risk of injuries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze recruitment pattern of the muscles according to posture(joint angle displacement) during grinding. In this study, EMG signals of pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, and posterior deltoid muscle were measured and analyzed from FlexComp EMG solution. And subjective ratings of perceived exertion were made using Borg's CR-10 rating scale.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.307-317
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• 2016

Objective: This study looks into biomechanical variables occurring when one moves in a sitting posture, and presents objective references to make improvements in work environments of farm workers. Background: The farmers have more common musculoskeletal disorders compared to other professions, because they are much more exposed to biomechanical risk factors. The sitting posture that is the representative form of the squatted, can cause typical knee joint diseases, such as osteoarthritis or patellofemoral pain syndrome of the knee joint. Therefore, a quantitative study of knee load upon the movement in a squatting posture is required. Method: In order to proceed with its investigation, the study examined movements in a sitting posture with and without a lower body supporter through a threedimensional image analysis and by using Surface EMG. The study compared and analyzed the average muscle activity and the maximum muscle activity as well. Results: Every movement in a sitting posture is related to loads onto the knee joints and, when the farm workers move to sides, the study observed a high level of bowlegged moment. The study also noticed differences in muscle activity of medial gastrocnemius with and without the lower body supporter. Conclusion and Application: The study argues that what has been discussed so far is evidence to prove how the farm working environments should be improved in consideration of these movements observed when the farm workers move in a sitting posture.