Wearable IMU Wireless Sensors Network for Smart Instrument of Ergonomic Risk Assessment

This study develops a smart instrument to assess the ergonomic risk of workers' physical tasks. Ergonomic risk assessment has traditionally been carried out by observing the workers work posture subjectively. We observed this work gesture quantitatively with the new approach using a set of wearable sensors. Nine Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors are deployed to nine measured body limbs. All of these sensors are connected via the Wireless Sensors Network. The ergonomic assessment method used in this study was the NIOSH Lifting Equation, which is applied in the task case of hospital linen workers. This research proves the system has been able to assess ergonomic risk in real-time, and the workers flexibility to carry out physical tasks has not interfered.