Development of a posture evaluation system based on OWAS for easy use in the work site

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K14994
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 25020:Safety engineering-related
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Hida Takuya 青山学院大学, 理工学部, 助教 (70748326)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 作業姿勢 / OWAS / 人間工学 / 経営工学 / 筋骨格系障害

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, a posture evaluation system based on OWAS, one of the observation methods, was developed to easily evaluate work posture at a work site. In this system, an evaluator takes a picture of a worker with a camera such as a tablet terminal, and performs posture evaluation by tapping each joint of the worker in the image. To achieve this, the 3D coordinates of the joints in the OWAS-based posture were obtained through subject experiments, and a machine learning model was created using the 2D coordinates obtained by transforming them as the teaching data. As a result, it was confirmed that posture evaluation can be performed with an accuracy of approximately 80%.

Free Research Field

人間工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

労働現場では腰痛などの筋骨格系障害が頻発しており，その主な要因は作業姿勢，取扱い重量，反復動作の有無などである．しかし，これらの要因による身体への影響を評価するには知識や機器，手間が必要である．本研究で開発されたシステムを使用することで，知識や特別な機器，手間がかからず作業姿勢を評価することができる．さらに，評価結果を分析することで，作業姿勢による負担が少ない，人にやさしい作業の設計に寄与することができる．