Multi-Objective Optimisation Method for Posture Prediction and Analysis with Consideration of Fatigue Effect and its Application Case

摘要

Automation technique has been widely used in manufacturing industry, butthere are still manual handling operations required in assembly and maintenancework in industry. Inappropriate posture and physical fatigue might result inmusculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in such physical jobs. In ergonomics andoccupational biomechanics, virtual human modelling techniques have beenemployed to design and optimize the manual operations in design stage so as toavoid or decrease potential MSD risks. In these methods, physical fatigue isonly considered as minimizing the muscle or joint stress, and the fatigueeffect along time for the posture is not considered enough. In this study,based on the existing methods and multiple objective optimisation method (MOO),a new posture prediction and analysis method is proposed for predicting theoptimal posture and evaluating the physical fatigue in the manual handlingoperation. The posture prediction and analysis problem is mathematicallydescribed and a special application case is demonstrated for analyzing adrilling assembly operation in European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company(EADS) in this paper.