• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.43-56
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• 2003

Observational methods such as OWAS, RULA, and REBA have been widely used to identify posture-related risks of musculoskeletal disorders in industry, since they are useful and efficient in evaluating postural stresses. However. there are few studies comparing the methods and providing guidelines for selecting and using the methods. They have been developed based on different backgrounds and with different application areas. Each method has its own characteristics. which must be considered in selecting and using them. In this study. 17 male subjects evaluated 42 different working postures that frequently assumed in the automobile assembly line using a psychophysical method. The postures were then evaluated by different observational methods. The results of the observational methods were compared with psychophysically evaluated stresses. The observational methods resulted in different values of stresses for certain postures. For some postures showing high values of perceived discomfort. the observational methods showed different values of stresses. These results showed that the observational methods should be used differently according to application area and they have some weak points to be improved.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.77-86
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• 2004

Observational methods to evaluate postural load have an intrinsic week point that is the problem of reliability in observing postures subjectively, although they have been widely used in assessing risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in the industry. In this study, observational reliability was discussed based on reviewing several previous studies. Practical guidelines was presented to reduce the observational errors when using video recording for the assessment of risk factors. In addition, previous studies on observational reliability were summarized and analyzed according to body parts to be observed, media for observation, objective measures, analysis, statistics, etc. It is expected that this basic study can be used to increase the applicability and accuracy of the observational methods.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제36권3호
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• pp.187-197
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• 2019

The Optical Wide-field patroL-Network (OWL-Net) is a Korean optical space surveillance system used to track and monitor objects in space. In this study, the characteristics of four Initial Orbit Determination (IOD) methods were analyzed using artificial observational data from Low Earth Orbit satellites, and an appropriate IOD method was selected for use as the initial value of Precise Orbit Determination using OWL-Net data. Various simulations were performed according to the properties of observational data, such as noise level and observational time interval, to confirm the characteristics of the IOD methods. The IOD results produced via the OWL-Net observational data were then compared with Two Line Elements data to verify the accuracy of each IOD method. This paper, thus, suggests the best method for IOD, according to the properties of angles-only data, for use even when the ephemeris of a satellite is unknown.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.87-92
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• 2024

This study aims to compare six observational methods for assessing arm- and hand-intensive tasks, based on literature review. The comparison was conducted in viewpoints of body regions, force/external load, motion repetition, other factors including static posture, coupling, duration/break, pace, temperature, precision task, and final risk or exposure level. The number of risk factors assessed was more, and assessment procedure was more complex than the observational methods for assessing whole-body postural loads such as Ovako Working Posture Analysis System(OWAS), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment(RULA), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment(REBA). Due to these, the intra- and inter-reliabilities were not high. A past study showed that while Hand Arm Risk Assessment Method(HARM) identified the smallest proportion of the work tasks as high risk, Strain Index(SI) and Quick Exposure Check(QEC) hand/wrist were the most rigorous with classifying most work tasks as high risk. This study showed that depending on the observational technique compared, the evaluation factors, risk or exposure level, and evaluation results were different, making it necessary to select a technique appropriate for the characteristics of the work being assessed.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• 제45권5호
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• pp.140-150
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• 2003

Observational methods such as the Asaoka's method and the hyperbolic method are widely applied on the settlement analysis using observed settlement. The most unreliable aspects in those methods is arose from the subjective discretion of initial non-linearity on linear regression. The initial non-linearity is inevitable due to the settlement behaviour itself. Therefore an objective method is essential to achieve more reliable results on settlement analysis. It was found that the initial non-linear data are statistical outliers. New automation algorithms of the hyperbolic and the Asaoka's method were developed based on outlier detection method. The methods are a successive detection of outliers and a searching method of suitable hyperbolic range for the Asaoka's and the hyperbolic method respectively. Applicability of the algorithms was verified through case studies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.139-149
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• 2000

This study aims to review and assess the existing postural classification schemes used for evaluating postural loads in industry. The schemes can be classified into three categories: self-report, observational and instrument-based techniques depending upon how to record working postures. Of the three techniques, this study was mainly focused on the observational methods. The observational technique is most widely used in the industrial sites because it does not interfere with work, and is easy and simple to use and cost-effective without requiring the use of expensive equipment for estimating the angular deviation of a body segment from the neutral position. In spite of the usefulness and applicability, the techniques have some problems: 1) The existing observational techniques lack the consistency in the class limits of the motion categories in each body segment; 2) Most of them do not provide the post-analysis criteria needed to judge whether or not any posture is acceptable in view point of the postural load; and 3) They can not precisely evaluate the postural load for a given posture because the external loads and dynamic factors including acceleration, moment and force were not taken into consideration.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.289-296
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• 2005

This study aims to measure maximum holding times(MHTs) of symmetric and asymmetric whole body postures, and to compare three representative observational methods including OWAS, RULA, REBA, based on the MHTs. An experiment was conducted for obtaining the MHTs, in which hand position was used as experimental variable, and the MHT and subjective discomfort rating as dependent variables. The hand position was defined by the percentage of the shoulder height(%SH), the percentage of the arm reach(%AR) and rotation angle(R). The results showed that three independent variables of %SH, %AR and R significantly affected on the MHTs at ${\alpha}$=0.01, and that the MHTs were negatively linearly related to the discomfort scores of Borg CR10. It was also revealed that OWAS and REBA were less sensitive to postural stress than RULA. In addition, OWAS and REBA underestimated postural load of given postures compared to RULA. Therefore, it is recommended that among the three observational methods investigated in this study, RULA be used for a more precise evaluation of postural load.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.31-36
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• 2021

This study aims to review observational methods for assessing postural loads such as OWAS, RULA and REBA, and to compare them, based on the literature survey. The literature was searched through academic database of ScienceDirect using the key words of observational methods, OWAS, RULA and REBA. The results exhibited that of the thee methods, RULA was cited in the literature and applied to manufacturing industries the most frequently. Although it has been known that RULA is appropriate for assessing upper body postures, it has been applied to healthcare and social work activities, agriculture, forestry, fishing, construction, mining and quarrying, which require unstable lower limb postures. The countries where more number of relevant studies have been carried out were USA, India, Brazil, UK, etc. It was recommended that of the three techniques, RULA may be better for assessing postural loads, because it evaluated postural loads more highly, irrespective of industry, work type and lower limb postures, and its assessment results had higher agreement rate with experts' assessments than those of OWAS and REBA. It is expected that the results of this study will be used as a guideline for selecting an appropriate observational method.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• 제45권6호
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• pp.183-193
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• 2003

Most construction works on the soft ground adopt instrumentation to manage settlement and stability of the embankment. The rapid progress of the information technologies and the digital data acquisition on the soft ground instrumentation has led to the fast-growing amount of data. Although valuable information about the behaviour of the soft ground may be hiding behind the data, most of the data are used restrictedly only for the management of settlement and stability. One of the critical issues on soft ground instrumentation is the long-term settlement prediction. Some observational settlement analysis methods are used for this purpose. But the reliability of the analysis results is remained in vague. The knowledge could be discovered from a large volume of experiences on the observational settlement analysis. In this article, we present a database to store settlement records and data mining procedure. A large volume of knowledge about observational settlement prediction were collected from the database by applying the filtering algorithm and knowledge discovery algorithm. Statistical analysis revealed that the reliability of observational settlement analysis depends on stay duration and estimated degree of consolidation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 한국지반공학회 2000년도 봄 학술세미나 논문집
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• pp.37-54
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• 2000

The observational method using field measurement technique have contributed significantly to advancements in the state-of-the art of geotechnical engineering in the 20th century. Due to the rapid development in computer technology, Internet and GIS have become an integral part of civil engineering project management. This paper presents new technologies and development in observational method which have valuable implication on field measurement in geotechnical engineering. Systematic approach to planning monitoring program in geotechnical instrumentation is also presented. Finally, research needs in development and application of integrated design/construction management system in geotechnical engineering projects are discussed.