• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.1015-1016
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• 2010

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.53-61
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the path analysis of factors related to musculoskeletal diseases of shipbuilding workers by considering related factors synthetically. The survey was completed by 1,536 shipbuilding workers and except for poor responses, 1,532 were analyzed. The survey consisted of questions about lifestyle, duration of service, physical and mental stress, and musculoskeletal diseases. The collected data was analyzed with SPSS/PC+ (a descriptive statistics program) and with AMOS 4.0 (a statistical program for path modeling) to test whether the hypothesized path model fitted the collected data. The results of the correlation analysis showed that musculoskeletal disease was associated with duration of service (r=-.095), physical stress (r=.077), and mental stress (r=.602). The results of the hypothesized path model satisfied the criteria required in relation to fitting the collected data. Musculoskeletal disease was directly affected by mental stress but not by physical stress, duration of service and life style. Thus, it is suggested that reducing mental stress is a strategy for the prevention for musculoskeletal disease.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.315-325
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• 2022

Background: Firefighters are required to carry self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), which increases the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. This study assessed the newly recruited firefighters' internal forces and potential musculoskeletal disorders when carrying SCBA. The effects of SCBA strap lengths were also evaluated. Methods: Kinematic parameters of twelve male subjects running in a control condition with no SCBA equipped and three varying-strapped SCBAs were measured using 3D inertial motion capture. Subsequently, motion data and predicted ground reaction force were inputted for subject-specific musculoskeletal modeling to estimate joint and muscle forces. Results: The knee was exposed to the highest internal force when carrying SCBA, followed by the rectus femoris and hip, while the shoulder had the lowest force compared to the no-SCBA condition. Our model also revealed that adjusting SCBA straps length was an efficient strategy to influence the force that occurred at the lumbar spine, hip, and knee regions. Grey relation analysis indicated that the deviation of the center of mass, step length, and knee flexion-extension angle could be used as the predictor of musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion: The finding suggested that the training of the newly recruits focuses on the coordinated movement of muscle and joints in the lower limb. The strap lengths around 98-105 cm were also recommended. The findings are expected to provide injury interventions to enhance the occupational health and safety of the newly recruited firefighters.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.761-766
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• 2010

The goal of this study is to analysis natural frequency for different static postures of human leg. To perform this research human leg is modeled by multi-body modeling for the musculoskeletal system. This leg model has biarticular muscles which acting on two joints and the muscles represents some of the major muscles, such as hamstring, of the upper and lower limbs. To obtain each static equilibrium position energy method is employed and to analysis natural frequency linearization method for constrained mechanical system is employed. Static equilibrium position depends on some parameter or condition such as hamstring stiffness or external force. Making a change these parameter the aim of this research can be performed.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.117-121
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• 2023

Research on walking assistance exoskeletons that provide optimized torque to individuals has been conducted steadily, and these studies aim to help users feel stable when walking and get help that suits their intentions. Because exoskeleton auxiliary efficiency evaluation is based on metabolic cost savings, experiments on real people are needed to evaluate continuously evolving control algorithms. However, experiments with real people always require risks and high costs. Therefore, in this study, we intend to actively utilize human musculoskeletal simulation. First, to improve the accuracy of musculoskeletal models, we propose a body segment mass distribution algorithm using body composition analysis data that reflects body characteristics. Secondly, the efficiency of most exoskeleton torque control algorithms is evaluated as the reduction rate of Metabolic Cost. In this study, we assume that the torque minimizing the Metabolic Cost is the optimal torque and propose a method for obtaining the torque.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2003

The resonance behaviour needs be understood to identify the mechanisms responsible for the dynamic characteristics of human body, to allow for the non-linearity when predicting the influence of seating dynamics, and to predict the adverse effects caused by various magnitudes of vibration. However, there are currently no known studies on the effect of vibration magnitude on the transmissibility to thoracic or lumbar spine of the seated person, despite low back pain(LBP) being the most common ailment associated with whole-body vibration. The objective of this paper is to develop a proper mathematical human model for LBP and musculoskeletal injury of the crew in a maritime vehicle. In this study, 7 degree-of-freedom including 2 non-rigid mass representing wobbling visceral and intestine mass, is proposed. Also, when compared with previously published experimental results, the model response was found to be well-matching. When exposed to various of vertical vibration, the human model shows appreciable non-linearity in its biodynamic responses. The relationships of resonance for LBP and musculoskeletal injury during whole-body vibration are also explained.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.3 s.81
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• pp.81-87
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• 2007

In this study digital human models of ship construction tasks using modeling & simulation were constructed and human models' activities through human activity analysis were evaluated. Human Factors experts analyzed the actual workers' tasks using the same technique used in human activity analysis at the same time. The main objective of this study is to check a possibility of applying digital human modeling technique to ship construction tasks that are mostly non-standardized(not uniformed) whereas most applications of digital human modeling technique have been applied to standardized tasks. We evaluated postures of both real workers and digital humans by RULA. It turned out that the final scores of RULA evaluation on real workers are the same as the RULA scores for digital humans. However, there were differences of RULA detail scores between real workers and digital humans in the several processes related with the wrist twist and deviations. Those differences are considered to be resulted from the error in the on-site measuring worker's body dimension which could be reduced by accurate tools to correct data for body dimension and digital real drawings for facilities. The results showed possibility of application of digital human modeling and ergonomic analysis on informal work operations as well as formal operations in the shipbuilding industry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.745-746
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.233-234
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• 2008

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.119-125
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• 2008

Musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) are one of the major issues in shipbuilding industry. Main risk factors of MSDs include manual handling of heavy weight, awkward posture, repetitive tasks, prolonged static muscle contraction, and so on. in this study, Using the three-dimensional digital human modeling and simulation method we made up a worker and work posture on a virtual environment. To verify this simulation we compared both traditional ergonomic analysis on a real worker and digital program analysis on a digital human. And this paper shows that it is possible to reduce the rate of MSDs in the shipbuilding industry because it means we can change poor posture mid surroundings into better ones.