An application of Monte-Carlo simulation to RULA and REBA

摘要

The use of ergonomic evaluation tools can help in identifying the potentialfor musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) arising from the design of worktasks. Rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) and rapid entire body assessment(REBA) are ergonomic assessment tools developed to evaluatethe risks associated with these disorders. Both tools primarily evaluatethese risks by examining body joint angle inputs, specifically by estimatinga single joint angle, but in realistic situations, a full range ofangles experienced is required to produce reliable evaluation.Furthermore, users of these tools may be uncertain of his/her estimation,especially if only a single joint angle is considered. A new approachbased on Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) in which joint angles are representedin distributions instead of single values is proposed to handlesuch issues. An empirical example is presented to compare traditionalRULA and REBA to Monte-Carlo-RULA/Monte-Carlo-REBA approaches.The proposed approach exhibited a higher degree of sensitivity withrespect to joint angles associated with variability and uncertainty.