Posture Monitoring and Correction Exercises for Workers in Hostile Environments Utilizing Non-Invasive Sensors: Algorithm Development and Validation

Abstract

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an essential key factor in standardizing safety within the workplace. Harsh working environments with long working hours can cause stress on the human body that may lead to musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). MSD refers to injuries that impact the muscles, nerves, joints, and many other human body areas. Most work-related MSD results from hazardous manual tasks involving repetitive, sustained force, or repetitive movements in awkward postures. This paper presents collaborative research from the School of Electrical Engineering and School of Allied Health at Curtin University. The main objective was to develop a framework for posture correction exercises for workers in hostile environments, utilizing inertial measurement units (IMU). The developed system uses IMUs to record the head, back, and pelvis movements of a healthy participant without MSD and determine the range of motion of each joint. A simulation was developed to analyze the participant’s posture to determine whether the posture present would pose an increased risk of MSD with limits to a range of movement set based on the literature. When compared to measurements made by a goniometer, the body movement recorded 94% accuracy and the wrist movement recorded 96% accuracy.

Keywords

• personal protective equipment (PPE)
• hostile environments
• posture monitoring
• musculoskeletal disorder
• optical motion capture
• fiber-optic sensing