Smart Vest for Real-Time Postural Biofeedback and Ergonomic Risk Assessment

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 8; pp. 107583 - 107592
• Main Authors: Cerqueira, Sara M., Silva, Alexandre Ferreira Da, Santos, Cristina P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Back; Biofeedback; Biological control systems; Data analysis; Disorders; Ergonomic risk assessment; Ergonomics; Garments; Haptic interfaces; inertial measurement units; Inertial sensing devices; Real time; Real-time systems; Risk assessment; Risk management; Robot arms; Sensors; Smart materials; Wearable technology; wearables design; WRMSDs
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3000673

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) are a serious worldwide health concern, that can result in the worker's permanent disability and an economic burden of up to 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This paper presents the design and development of an innovative smart garment for real-time ergonomic risk assessment. It aims to empower operators with posture awareness and provide objective data to ergonomists. The system is based on inertial sensors and implements a biofeedback strategy that uses haptic stimulus to warn the user about hazard postures, enabling more ergonomic postures. To allow an easy data analysis, a graphical interface was developed in MATLAB. This framework was validated with 5 subjects, in a simulated scenario with 5 tasks that included a collaborative robot arm. The results showed that providing real-time biofeedback to the subject improves posture awareness, and has a significant impact on reducing the ergonomic risk, with reductions of up to 39.8% of the time spent in hazard postures. The wearable technology and developed methodologies are a promising tool to complement the ergonomist diagnoses of hazard tasks and workspaces and to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.