ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: The occurrence of slips can be disruptive in workers’ life, causing various types of injuries. Working with prolonged standing and walking postures in a commercial kitchen contributes to worker fatigue. A psychophysical approach can be used in identifying the extent to which workers’ fatigue contributes to the occurrence of slipping. Method: Electromyography (EMG) was used to record and analyze the data of three values of muscle activity obtained from the study. Twelve participants aged 23 to 60 years old with a Body Mass Index (BMI) mean of 27.82 ± 4.01 kg/m2. The participants were selected based on the experience of at least three years and above in commercial kitchen activity. The testing procedures were explained in detail upon agreement. They had to walk with four different types of walking speeds with water and oil as the contaminants on the floors. Results: The slip occurred high frequency for obese participants compared to overweight participants when increasing their speeds of walking on oily floor surfaces. Female participants experience slips more than male participants. The muscle Soleus and Tibialis frequently produce higher muscle activity during slip occurrence compared to muscle Peroneus. Conclusion: The results of the study show that the psychophysical approach is significant in the occurrence of slipping during work activities in commercial kitchens when the muscle of Soleus and Tibialis produces higher muscle activity during slip occurrence. There was no significant factor of age during the slip occurrence.
ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Working in a Commercial kitchen environment poses a potential hazard for a slip accident. Prolonged standing working posture reflects human balance issues. Therefore, this study investigated the ankle angle during Commercial kitchen activity to justify the potential of slip during the activity and correlate between the walking step and slip incident. Method: Vicon motion capture was used to record movements and Vicon Nexus software was used to analyze data. Six male and six female healthy adults with a minimum of three years of Commercial kitchen activity experience participated in this study. Participants have to walk at four different speeds and carry the load at the upper limb and flooring with water and oil as a contaminant. Results: The slip occurred frequently on the oily surfaces compared to water surfaces especially among overweight and obese participants. Ankle angle during slip occurrence was from 97.2 ± 6.7° for male participants and 112.5 ± 12.7° for female participants. Conclusion: The results presented that overweight and obese participants' significant slip occurred when walking on oily surfaces. There was no correlation between carrying load and Body Mass Index (BMI). The walking speed also significant with slip occurrence.
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This paper reviews various papers since the year 2000 until 2016 regarding visual technology in human anthropometrystudy, and discusses three major points; (1) the methods and objectives of the research, (2) the subjects of theexperiments and (3) body parts involved in the anthropometrical measurements. Measurement using visualtechnology is claimed to be more accurate in obtaining anthropometrical data compared to the conventional methodusing manual tools. However, commercial visual technology system can be very costly. Based on the reviewedstudies, a significant amount of research has adopted various visual processing methods to predict the human’s bodymeasurement. All of the studies utilized the applications of enhanced technologies that are able to reduce time andhuman errors that normally occur during traditional hand-operated measurement. Usually, in order to prove thattheir result is promising, the studies compared their results with the results gained from manual measurement. Thefinding from this review is a preliminary step towards developing a camera-based system in anthropometrymeasurement for the use in automotive ergonomics design.
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BACKGROUND: Prolonged standing has been hypothesized as a vital contributor to discomfort and muscle fatigue in the workplace. The objective of this study was to develop a decision support system that could provide systematic analysis and solutions to minimize the discomfort and muscle fatigue associated with prolonged standing. METHODS: The integration of object-oriented programming and a Model Oriented Simultaneous Engineering System were used to design the architecture of the decision support system. RESULTS: Validation of the decision support system was carried out in two manufacturing companies. The validation process showed that the decision support system produced reliable results. CONCLUSION: The decision support system is a reliable advisory tool for providing analysis and solutions to problems related to the discomfort and muscle fatigue associated with prolonged standing. Further testing of the decision support system is suggested before it is used commercially.