Designing a User-Centered Inspection Device’s Handle for the Aircraft Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

In aircraft manufacturing settings, workers are frequently exposed to biomechanical risk factors, mainly in the later stages of the production processes, including inspection tasks. To support the development of a novel inspection device appropriate for the end-users and their tasks, this study presents a user-centered approach for the device’s handle. Three different handles were proposed, and the current study aims to find out which handle can offer (1) the best ergonomic conditions and (2) the best stability in holding the device in hand during an inspection task. To this end, 23 volunteers participated in the experimental assessment, which comprised qualitative and quantitative data. A questionnaire was used for subjective comfort assessment. Partial times to execute the task studied, stability metrics of the device during its handling, and kinematic and electromyographic data of the upper limb recruited were measured and analyzed to compare the three handles. Outstanding results include the higher comfort perceived by the participants working with the selected handle for the final design, as well as the reduction in muscle effort. Globally, the results obtained demonstrated that the handle user-centered design potentiates good efficiency and usability of the novel device.

A Quick Capture Evaluation System for the Automatic Assessment of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders for Sanitation Workers

“…In ergonomic studies focused on WMSD risk, there are various applications of human bioelectrical signals, with the most common being electroencephalography (EEG) for measuring brain electrical activity [17] and electromyography (EMG) for measuring muscle electrical activity [18]. Additionally, for a more comprehensive ergonomic assessment, Ana Colim et al utilized quantitative data collected from EMG and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to achieve user-centered aircraft handle design [19]. Therefore, we believe that direct measurements using different sensors in WMSD research can provide the high-precision human motion data required for the study, while also serving as a standard for validating the accuracy of other assessment systems, but often incurring high research costs [20].…”