International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics最新文献

{"title":"A focus on quantitative methods to assess human factors in collaborative robotics","authors":"Alessia de Nobile ,&nbsp;Daniele Bibbo ,&nbsp;Marta Russo ,&nbsp;Silvia Conforto","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103663","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103663","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The advent of Industry 4.0 has transformed manufacturing by incorporating industrial robots to boost productivity and quality while cutting costs. Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) is central to this shift, emphasizing seamless cooperation between humans and robots in shared workspaces. Evaluating the impact of such collaboration on human operators is crucial for efficiency, safety, and well-being. This systematic review explores methodologies for assessing human factors in HRC environments, spanning psychological, cognitive, and physical realms. Various evaluation methods have been identified, from subjective questionnaires to objective measurements. While subjective methods are the standard (especially questionnaires), there is a growing trend towards integrating physiological and physical measurements. The blend of subjective and objective methods offers a holistic understanding of human-robot interaction. This review adopts a more technical-oriented approach in the assessment of human factors in HRC. As a result, it consolidates existing methodologies and suggests avenues for further research, highlighting the significance of this assessment for enhancing productivity, safety, and well-being in industrial settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103663"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142657030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Discovering hidden strengths: How a passive lower extremity exoskeleton boosts the isometric pulling capacity to new heights","authors":"Jangwhon Yoon","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Wearable exoskeletons aim to balance physical work demands and individual capacity. This study assessed isometric pushing capacities in various directions using a chair-type exoskeleton (CEX) at different heights. Twenty participants of both genders underwent forward, backward, upward and sideways pushing. Using CEX increased posterior pushing by over 60%, decreased lateral pushing about 10%, but had no significant effect on anterior or superior pushing capacities. The weight distribution on the feet rose to 80% in posterior pushing and dropped to 20% in anterior pushing, while weight distribution between the feet and CEX, measured with two force plates, was about 5:5 in superior and lateral pushing. Despite increased posterior pushing, decrease in posterior stability with CEX should be considered. Workers and exoskeleton designers should be aware of this trade-off between increased pushing capacity and reduced posterior postural stability. With proper precautions to mitigate the risk of falling, introducing CEX can be especially beneficial for the workers needing to pull objects at lower levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103661"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142657029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The future of office and administrative support occupations in the era of artificial intelligence: A state of the art review and future research directions","authors":"Priyadarshini R. Pennathur ,&nbsp;Valerie Boksa ,&nbsp;Arunkumar Pennathur ,&nbsp;Andrew Kusiak ,&nbsp;Beth A. Livingston","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103665","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103665","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by the year 2029, the United States will lose a million jobs in the office and administrative support occupations because technology, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to substitute or replace the office and administrative functions performed by office workers. Despite the potential impact AI will have on office work and the important role office workers play in the American economy, we have limited knowledge of the state of the art research in office work at the intersection of emerging artificial intelligence technologies. In this study, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the scholarly literature at the intersection of office work, office automation and artificial intelligence. We extracted literature sources from Compendex and Scopus databases and used VOSviewer for visualizing and quantifying our bibliometric analyses. Our findings from keywords analysis indicate that office automation, humans, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence occurred more frequently in the scholarly literature and had high link strengths. Keyword clusters from co-occurrence analysis indicate that intelligent buildings, robotics, and the internet of things are emerging topics in the office work domain. The two clusters related to ergonomics, worker characteristics, human performance, and safety indicate the types of human factors concerns that are more widely studied in office work settings. In summary, our findings on the state-of-the-art research in office work indicate that more studies have been conducted on smart buildings, robotics, and technology development for office work, compared to studies on office workers and their professional development.</div></div><div><h3>Relevance to industry</h3><div>This review on the state-of-the-art in research on office work is relevant in every industry that has the potential to undergo significant changes due to AI in the future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103665"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142657031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ergonomic design of mastectomy bra based on emotion measurements","authors":"Chi Liu ,&nbsp;Yifei Chen ,&nbsp;Meng Yang ,&nbsp;Kui Jin ,&nbsp;Bugao Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103659","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103659","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The mastectomy bra (M-bra) serves as an essential rehabilitative product for individuals who have undergone breast cancer surgery. This study aimed to develop an ergonomic design method for M-bras that addresses both the physiological and psychological needs of post-mastectomy breast cancer patients. Over 270 M-bras with diverse design options were collected from online markets, and more than 100 post-mastectomy patients participated in an online survey to rank their preferences regarding eight M-bra components and 19 design options. An orthogonal experimental design was applied to reduce the vast array of design combinations to 20 M-bra test samples. The Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) emotion model and the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) scale were then used to collect PAD scores from 40 patients evaluating these test samples. Extreme difference analysis was conducted to evaluate the significance of the M-bra components and identify combinations that generated the highest and lowest PAD levels. Based on the PAD scores, 11 samples were categorized as \"delighted\" or \"relaxed\" M-bras due to their positive emotional polarity. Linear regression analysis showed strong correlations between the design options and PAD scores, with R² values of 0.962 for P, 0.819 for A, and 0.949 for D. A backpropagation neural network was developed to predict PAD values for various M-bra design options, achieving prediction errors of 8.06% for P, 6.15% for A, and 13.29% for D, demonstrating satisfactory performance given the subjective nature of the evaluations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103659"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142553540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of control parameters of wearable robotics on muscle activity during assisted elbow flexion","authors":"Yuan Yang ,&nbsp;Wen Liang Yeoh ,&nbsp;Jeewon Choi ,&nbsp;Teerapapa Luecha ,&nbsp;Ping Yeap Loh ,&nbsp;Satoshi Muraki","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103660","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103660","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One way to provide assistance in a dynamic lifting task is to pre-emptively move the exoskeleton based on a predicted reference trajectory. However, the level of aggressiveness in the prediction (i.e., how far ahead in time) and the exoskeleton's degree of adherence to the reference trajectory (stiffness) are not yet fully understood. This study investigated the effects of stiffness and pre-emptive offset parameters in an impedance-controlled robotic arm on muscle activation and perceived exertion of the user. Thirteen participants were instructed to lift a load equivalent to 15% of their maximal voluntary contracted force in collaboration with a robotic arm with 40°–135° of elbow flexion in 1.12 s. Three levels of stiffness (lower: 0.1 N m deg⁻¹, medium: 0.2 N m deg⁻¹, and higher: 0.31 N m deg⁻¹) and two levels of pre-emptive offsets (shorter: 0.1 s and longer: 0.4 s) were investigated. We found that (1) during 0–0.5 s (acceleration stage) of elbow flexion, a higher stiffness level and a longer pre-emptive offset decreased muscle activity; (2) during 0.5–1 s (deceleration stage) of elbow flexion, medium and higher stiffness with a shorter pre-emptive offset decreased muscle activity; (3) the perceived exertion and assistance of participants were improved with a higher stiffness and a longer pre-emptive offset, whereas cooperation was rated higher at a shorter pre-emptive offset under higher stiffness. This study reveals that the optimal parameters for stiffness and pre-emptive offsets for predictive impedance controls are different for different stages of elbow flexion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103660"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142657028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"You cannot have both – Two different ways of change implementation and their effects on adaptive performance and frustration","authors":"Wiebke M. Roling ,&nbsp;Marcus Grum ,&nbsp;Norbert Gronau ,&nbsp;Annette Kluge","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103669","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103669","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The dynamics and frequency of change in today's workplaces force organizations to address the question of how to create optimal conditions for facilitating adaptation to change. Identifying critical factors that affect performance and well-being in change situations can help answer this question. Given the need for applied research in this area, the aim of this paper is to investigate whether the way of change implementation has an impact on performance and well-being. Additionally, retentivity and specific self-efficacy as individual factors are exploratorily investigated. In an experimental study, seventy-one participants learned and trained specific manufacturing steps in a simulated production environment. Subsequently, they had to adapt the trained task execution as some of the previously learned manufacturing steps were subject to change. The changes were implemented a) either in a stepwise manner or b) all at once. The executed manufacturing steps were recorded, enabling the calculation of task execution time and classification of adaptation errors. The results of Mann-Whitney-U-tests showed that the stepwise introduction of changes led to significantly faster task execution time than the change introduction all at once. Additionally, descriptive statistics indicated fewer adaptation errors but higher frustration. Our exploratory analysis showed a significant negative relationship between retentivity and task execution time, as well as between specific self-efficacy and frustration. Stepwise change introduction seems to be beneficial for adaptation, even though emotional responses and individual factors must be considered.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103669"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142721860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Working memory capacity prevents pilots' loss of situation awareness in distraction scenarios——An eye-movement study","authors":"Xudong Xie ,&nbsp;Jiazhong Yang ,&nbsp;Yuan Li ,&nbsp;Ming Ji","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103667","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103667","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Numerous flight accidents have been attributed to pilots' lack of situation awareness (SA), with distraction being a significant contributing factor. Therefore, identifying factors that may protect pilots' SA under distraction conditions and explore their mechanisms is crucial for promoting aviation safety. This study empirically investigates the effects of individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) on pilots' SA when performing secondary tasks. The pilots were divided into two groups based on their performance on the WMC test and were asked to complete a simulated cockpit monitoring task under three secondary task difficulty conditions (no task, low-difficulty task, and high-difficulty task). SA in the simulated monitoring tasks was measured using the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT), and eye movement data were collected to analyze visual behaviors and attention allocation. Results showed that the difficulty of secondary task significantly impacted overall SA, the perceptual level of SA and dwell times; however, secondary task difficulty did not affect the perceptual level of SA in pilots with high WMC. These results suggest that WMC protects pilots' perceptual level SA when they perform secondary tasks. This study provides additional insights into the mechanisms of working memory in protecting SA and offers theoretical guidance for the design of complex technical systems and pilot psychological selection, which can help promote aviation safety.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103667"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142697794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sedentary behavior and musculoskeletal symptoms among work from home employees","authors":"Jia-Hua Lin ,&nbsp;Benjamin Kaufman ,&nbsp;Ro-Ting Lin ,&nbsp;Stephen Bao","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103653","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103653","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Work from home (WFH) may result in less physical activity and more sedentary behaviour among office employees. The consequence to body pain is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess longitudinal sedentary behaviour change and pain association among office workers who have been working from home. Baseline survey was administered to a cohort of office employees in January–February 2020. In March, all employees started to work from home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The additional surveys took place in April, June, and December 2020. The survey consisted of IPAQ, which included sitting time report, along with self-reported proportion of time spent standing during work, and body pain. Generalized estimating equations were used to analyse the trends in pain scores, and their associations to sitting time and standing frequency. The cohort consisted of 143 participants at baseline. Participants reported lower pain scores for neck (risk ratio = 0.90, CI = 0.82–0.99) and back (risk ratio = 0.85, CI = 0.75–0.96) in December, compared with pain scores at baseline. Neck pain among participants with more standing was lower than those with infrequent standing (risk ratio = 0.87, CI = 0.79–0.96). Weekly sitting time had no statistically significant effect on body pain scores. For WFH employees, more standing appears to have a significant protective effect on the neck. Being more sedentary during work does not have a clear detrimental effect on long-term musculoskeletal health.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103653"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142553627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Imagining the future household refrigerator: A study investigating the dimension of user needs","authors":"Shangshang Zhu,&nbsp;Xiaoxiao Wang,&nbsp;Wenjie Li,&nbsp;Yenan Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103666","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103666","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Household refrigerator concepts have evolved with changing applicational scenarios and requirements, providing users with support for healthy eating, personal care, and other activities in the kitchen and other areas of the home. However, current research on exploring user expectations and requirements for household refrigerators lacks considering the perspective of applicational scenarios and activity support. For this study, we invited 45 participants to explore immersive experience methods and conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate user requirements for future household refrigerators in different home areas and obtain dimensional details related to user needs, ultimately generating new insights into the demand for connected, intelligent, emotional, easy to use. Our findings are instructive for the design of future refrigerators in household scenarios and provide guidance and references for the design of other smart home appliances.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103666"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142697916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Risk assessment of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in typical positions, case study: Operation and maintenance employees of oil and gas pipeline","authors":"Yuhao Wang,&nbsp;Yan Zhang,&nbsp;Jiehua He,&nbsp;Ruipeng Tong","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103662","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103662","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) seriously affect the health and well-being of oil and gas pipeline network operation and maintenance (O&amp;M) employees. To assess the risk of WMSDs among employees in oil and gas pipeline O&amp;M, this study constructs a systematic assessment methodology with typical job positions as the assessment object. This methodology includes identifying typical positions utilizing the Delphi method, determining the weights of risk indicators using the analytic network process, analyzing the impact consequences and possibilities of risk factors using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model, and evaluating the WMSD risk of each typical position combined with the risk assessment matrix. Moreover, the practicality and advantages of the methodology are verified through a case study. The results show that the method effectively assesses the WMSD risk of typical jobs in oil and gas pipeline operation and maintenance. Among the risk factors, movement and posture factors, as well as labor organization factors, had higher influence weights. Six typical jobs were identified, of which production process operators and mechanical maintenance engineers are high-risk jobs, while safety and environmental engineers have relatively low WMSD risk. Overall, this study provides an effective tool for assessing WMSD risk, thus promoting the well-being of O&amp;M employees.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 103662"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142697915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}