Högskolan i Skövde

The advance of automation in industry has meant that in recent years companies have begun to look for other ways to improve the efficiency of their productivity. Automation is present in all types of activities in industry, however, there are certain activities that cannot be fully automated due to the difficulty to develop them. Therefore, this activity must be handled by the worker and their safety must always be considered. In this aspect, ergonomics is in charge of studying the comfort and safety of the workers.

Numerous methods of studying ergonomics can be found today, but the one that this project will focus in is the Hand and Arm method (HARM) which nowadays is performed manually by ergonomists. This method requires a great deal of effort on the part of ergonomics professionals in order to obtain reliable and accurate results. In addition to this disadvantage, the time required to perform each evaluation is also high. As the HARM method is an observational evaluation method, the study must sometimes be made by more than one ergonomist to reach a valid conclusion.

This project presents the development of a system that automates one such ergonomic evaluation method called the Hand-Arm Risk Assessment Method (HARM). For this purpose, high-precision sensors are used to measure the different motions of a user's joints, as well as pressure sensors that measure the forces exerted by a worker while performing an industrial activity. This project is presented as a solution that improves both accuracy and reliability and reduces the time needed to perform the HARM method evaluation.

The created tool serves as a link between the ergonomist and the various hardware systems in use, and it features an intuitive user interface that enables both data collection and visual depiction of the evaluation's findings.

The topic of sustainable development, which is being addressed as a result of the development of the tool, is another crucial aspect of this project. Some of the objectives outlined in the UN's sustainable development guidelines have been met as a result of the intimate relationship between ergonomics and sustainability. Among these goals are good health and well-being (Goal 3), work and economic growth (Goal 8), industry, innovation, and infrastructure (Goal 9), gender equality (Goal 5) and reduced inequalities (Goal 10).