• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.223-228
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• 2015

This paper analyses the torque characteristics of the shoulder and elbow joints of a humanoid robot arm that is useful for an object lifting and transferring task instead of human beings. For the purpose, some typical human lifting behaviors are considered, and various simulations for lifting and transferring an object have been performed by employing a humanoid robot arm having a simple configuration of shoulder and elbow joints. Through the simulation, it is shown that the torque patterns and ranges of the shoulder and elbow joints required for such a humanoid lifting and transferring task can be found earlier in the design of a humanoid robot arm. As a result, this effort is useful for us to design an effective robot arm.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.41-47
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• 2009

The purpose of this study, during the lifting task was researching the difference and a relationship between the ground reaction force and the grip strength by change of position. After grip strength has measured in symmetry position and asymmetry position at 45cm and 75cm of height of hand, ground reaction force was measured by same attitude lifting wooden box. We analyzed the difference of grip strength and ground reaction force in each position change. The results of grip strength, the grip strength of both hand were significant difference that in study subject symmetry and asymmetry position (p<0.01). The results of symmetry lifting task, the study subjects was significant difference of the ground reaction force difference by height (p<0.05). Asymmetry lifting task was significant difference of ground reaction force difference by direction of rotation was changed (p<0.01). The result of it will rotate with non-dominant hand side of lifting tasks from height 75cm where it easily maintains a balance possibility and decreasing the load of the hand. Therefore, from the workshop in the work people, it will be between the height 75cm and non-dominant hand side of trunk rotatory direction in the lifting tasks. Future study is necessary researched about the change of grip strength when the height of the hand is higher, and the difference of the ground reaction force when the change of weight.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the cumulative fatigue of trunk muscles and the period of recovery time during repetitive lifting and lowering task with two different frequencies(4 times/min and 6 times/ min). Eight healthy males with no prior history of LBD(low back disorders) volunteered for this study. Subjects had 2, 3, 4, and 5 minutes recovery time respectively while they were preforming the lifting and lowering task at 15% level of MVC. EMG signals from six trunk muscles were collected and the fatigue level was analyzed quantitatively. In results, the fatigue levels of LES(left elector spinae), RLD(right lattissimus dorsi), LLD(left lattissimus dorsi), RRA(right rectus abdominis) and LRA(left rectus abdominis) were recovered when 3 minutes recovery time was given at 4 times/min frequency. However, the fatgue level of RES(right elector spinae) was recovered when 4 minutes recovery was given. On the other hand, when 6 times/min frequency was used, the RLD, LLD, RRA and LRA were recovered at 5 minutes of recovery time. But for RES and LES, it took longer than 5 minutes to be recovered. This results can be applied to design the adequate length of recovery time to control the cumulative fatigue of trunk muscles in industry with repetitive lifting and lowering task.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide analysis of physiological, biomechanical responses occurring from the operation to lifting or twist lifting task appears frequently in agricultural work. Methods: This study investigated the changes of physiological factors such as heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and biomechanical factors such as physical activity and kinetic analysis in the task of twisting at the waist while lifting. Results: Heart rates changed significantly with the workload. The result indicated that the workload of 2 kg was light intensity work, and the workload of 12 kg was hard intensity work. Physical activity increased as the workload increased both on wrist and waist. Besides, stress index of the worker increased with the workload. Dynamic load to herniated discs was analyzed using inertial sensor, and the angular acceleration and torque increased with the workload. The proposed measurement system can measure the recipient's physiological and physical signals in real-time and analyzed 3-dimensionally according to the variety of work load. Conclusions: The system we propose will be a new method to measure agricultural workers' multi-dimensional signals and analyze various farming tasks.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.89-93
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• 2009

The muscular-skeletal disorders that have become a major issue recently in Korean industrial safety area are mainly caused by manual material handling task. The objective of this study is to provide scientific data for the establishment of work safety standard for Korean workers through the experiments of lifting task under various conditions, in order to prevent the muscular-skeletal disorders in the industrial work site. This study used the psychophysical approach to determine the maximum acceptable weight(MAWL) for seven young male subjects, and used isometric and isoinertial strength variables as predictors to develop prediction models. Also, the oxygen consumption, heart rate, and RPE were measured or recorded while subjects were lifting their MAWL. Three different lifting frequencies(1, 3, 5lifts/min) with two lifting range from floor to knuckle height and knuckle to shoulder height for one hour's work shift using free style lifting technique were studied. These results may not only provide scientific data in establishing the safety standards for Korean workers' lifting tasks, but also contribute preventing the rapidly increasing muscular-skeletal disorders lately on the industrial site.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.17-31
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• 2003

Many risk factors with the onset of Low Back Pain(LBP) have been identified, however, lifting out of Manual Material Handling(MMH) was the most important factor to the LBP. Injuries due to lifting took account for 34.0%(227,291) out of the total overexertion in MMH(668,084). The weight, vertical location, twist angle, lifting frequency, and lifting posture were reviewed in this study. Technical information for using the revised lifting equation to evaluate a variety of two - handled manual material handling tasks was suggested. To measure worker's fatigue in lifting task, Lifting Index Simulator(LIS) was create under the revised NIOSH(National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting equation. For the implementation of the LIS, data was collected in A company manufactures various paints in Si-Wha industrial complex, Kyunggi-Do. The results of the Lifting Index(LI) were analyzed by MANOVA to find the relation with lifting variables collected. It was found that horizontal distance, vertical distance, travelling distance and frequency were significant at the 0.01 level and weight was significant at the 0.05 level. The purpose of this paper is to reduce the chronical low back pain for the manual material handlers.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.44-51
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the cumulative fatigue of trunk muscles andthe period of recovery time during repetitive lifting and lowering tasks with symmetric and asymmetric postures.Ten subjects participated in the experiment. Subjects had 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 minutes recovery time respectivelywhile they were performing the lifting and lowering task repeatedly for 3 minutes with the weight equivalent to25% level of MVC. EMG signals from ten trunk muscles were collected and the fatigue level was analyzedquantitatively. In results, the local muscle fatigue was no longer accumulated when 5 minutes recovery time wasgiven in symmetric position. For asymmetric position, it took longer minutes to prevent the fatigue accumul-ation. Different trunk muscles indicated slightly different recovery patterns in terms of MPF (Mean Powerfrequency) value.This result would help ergonomist design the length of recovery time to control the cumulative fatigue of trunkmuscles in industry with repetitive lifting and lowering task.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.90-98
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• 2008

This research selects the lifting task to be the main subject. Four experiments were designed to measure which among lifting postures, lifting heights, waist-belt, and breathing control significantly influences intra-abdominal pressure (Gallagher, 1991; Lavender, Andersson and Natarajan, 1999). The experimental results were taken to be the recommendations of the manual materials handling work design. The research findings reveal that the symmetrical stoop posture is the most significant to the intra-abdominal pressure within all lifting postures. When the lifting height is increased, the intra-abdominal pressure produced relatively goes up. Also, the combination of symmetrical stoop posture, waist-belt use, and inspiration and holding at the same time is the most efficient in carrying out lifting tasks. Simultaneously, the research discovers that for any posture, the volume of the intra-abdominal pressure is much bigger when using the waist-belt compared to when it is not used. Therefore, the waist-belt design for the lifting works might be the future research approach.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.87-99
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• 2000

This study aims to examine a fuzzy logic-based human expert EMG prediction model (FLHEPM) for predicting electromyographic responses of trunk muscles due to manual lifting based on two task (control) variables. The FLHEPM utilizes two variables as inputs and ten muscle activities as outputs. As the results, the lifting task variables could be represented with the fuzzy membership functions. This provides flexibility to combine different scales of model variables in order to design the EMG prediction system. In model development, it was possible to generate the initial fuzzy rules using the neural network, but not all the rules were appropriate (87% correct ratio). With regard to the model precision, the EMG signals could be predicted with reasonable accuracy that the model shows mean absolute error of 8.43% ranging from 4.97% to 13.16% and mean absolute difference of 6.4% ranging from 2.88% to 11.59%. However, the model prediction accuracy is limited by use of only two task variables which were available for this study (out of five proposed task variables). Ultimately, the neuro-fuzzy approach utilizing all five variables to predict either the EMG activities or the spinal loading due to dynamic lifting tasks should be developed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.176-182
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• 2005

American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) adopted the Lifting Threshold Limit Values ($TLVs^{(R)}$) in 2005 as a guideline for protecting the workers from work-related low back and shoulder disorders associated with repetitive lifting tasks. The TLVs consist of three tables with recommended weight limits for lifting tasks and their determination procedures are simple. The TLVs sans the material weight/the recommended values (LITLVs) were obtained from 45 lifting tasks in ship engine manufacturing factories. These values were compared and correlated with the Recommended Weight Limits (RWLs) and lifting indices (LIs) determined by the Revised Lifting Equation (LE) of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The average ratio, LITLVs/LIs, was 0.8 (LITLVs: $1.3{\pm}0.8$, LIs: $1.6{\pm}0.7$). Thus, the TLVs underestimated the risk than the LE. The LITLVs were highly correlated with LIs (r=0.82). The predicted value of LITLVs when LIs=1 wa 0.76. Using the predicted TLVs the higher risk ones of a large number of tasks can be screened to be further investigated.