Use of Virtual Reality to Assess the Ergonomic Risk of Industrialized Construction Tasks
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147, Issue 3
Abstract
Workers in industrialized construction are often exposed to physical demands (e.g., repetitive motion and awkward body posture) associated with the risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, despite the utilization of automated equipment. To reduce exposure to these risks, an investigation of workstation design is needed. This paper proposes a virtual reality (VR)-based ergonomic assessment method that identifies ergonomic risk ratings proactively in the initial phases of workstation design, thus reducing the need for physical mock-ups and lessening the cost and time required to develop and implement an improved workstation design. This method was demonstrated in an operational task through an experiment conducted with 13 participants. Compared with the physical mock-up, the designed VR application achieved an accuracy of approximately 86% and 80%, respectively, in Rapid Upper Limb Assessment and Rapid Entire Body Assessment to assess risk. Moreover, a questionnaire was developed to obtain feedback from participants on their perceptions toward the designed VR application, which further supported the success of using the proposed VR-based ergonomic assessment method.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all of the data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the technical writing assistance of Jonathan Tomalty and Kristin Berg. In addition, the authors express their gratitude to Dr. Mohamed Al-Hussein for his supervision, Tianyu (Jayden) Jiang, Jin (Judy) Liu, and Val Sirbu for assisting in the gameplay scripting and in designing the 3D scenes used in the VR application, Chelsea Ritter for insights during the development of the VR application, Anas Itani for assisting with the physical mock-up, and all of the volunteers who participated in the experiment. This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant (Grant No. RGPIN-2019-04585) and the University of Alberta.
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Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147 • Issue 3 • March 2021
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© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 16, 2020
Accepted: Sep 23, 2020
Published online: Dec 28, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2021
Discussion open until: May 28, 2021
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