Es. Jung et J. Choe, HUMAN REACH POSTURE PREDICTION BASED ON PSYCHOPHYSICAL DISCOMFORT, International journal of industrial ergonomics, 18(2-3), 1996, pp. 173-179
A man model is a useful design tool for the evaluation of man- machine
systems and products with less time delay and cost, specifically at t
he early stage of design. For a man model to be truly useful, it must
be integrated with a proper posture prediction model, especially, an a
rm reach prediction model. In this study, a regression model to predic
t the: perceived discomfort with respect to the joint movement was dev
eloped using a central composite design based on the response surface
method. Joint angles of the upper body with seven degrees of freedom a
nd the weight of a load were treated as independent variables while th
e perceived discomfort measured using a magnitude estimation technique
was used for the response variable. The perceived discomfort in the c
ategory scale and the normalized EMG of six muscles were also collecte
d, A three-dimensional reach posture prediction model using an inverse
kinematics technique was then developed, based on the prediction of p
erceived discomfort. The model predicts the posture by selecting the m
inimum discomfort configuration among feasible body postures to reach
a target point. The reach posture prediction model developed in this s
tudy was found to simulate human arm reach posture accurately and the
discomfort prediction model will help understand the human arm reach m
ovement.