A JAVA Implementation of modified Rapid Upper Limb Assessment

摘要

Work-related musculoskeletal disorder has become a common distress among students and office workers who sit in front of the computer for extended periods of time every day. The person diagnosed with a musculoskeletal disorder suffers notably symptoms of low back pain, neck pain, upper limbs pain, and fingers pain. The Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) method was originally developed by Dr. Lynn MacAtamney and Professor E. Nigel Corlett, ergonomists at the University of nNottingham in England, to estimate the risks of work-related upper limb disorders. The RULA method investigates the exposure of individual workers to risk factors associated with work-related upper limb disorder. Most of office workers and students typically sit in front of a computer with a prolonged sitting position for a period of time each day, and the risk of musculoskeletal disorder is very high in this group of people. A modified RULA method implemented in JAVA environment is a useful tool in assessing the musculoskeletal disorder risk for the office workers and students. In this research, we developed a software benchmark for surveying the modified RULA data collection procedures.