VR–MOCAP-Enabled Ergonomic Risk Assessment of Workstation Prototypes in Offsite Construction
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148, Issue 8
Abstract
Workers in offsite construction facilities are often exposed to repetitive motion and awkward body postures that are associated with the risk of developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders despite the use of automated equipment on production lines. To reduce the exposure to these risks, an investigation of the physical demands that workstations impose on workers’ bodies is needed. Since traditional methods used to collect human body motions have limitations, such as workplace interruptions and biased results due to subjective observation, this paper proposes a virtual reality (VR)–motion capture (MOCAP)-based ergonomic assessment method to evaluate ergonomic risks in a laboratory setting during the design phase of workstation development. It is expected that the number of iterations of physical workstation prototypes would be reduced if ergonomic risk ratings are identified proactively in the initial phases of workstation design, which would thereby reduce the cost and time required to develop and implement an improved workstation design. The present study includes a feasibility analysis of the proposed method in which participants representative of specific percentiles of the population based on their physical stature were invited to voluntarily participate in a research experiment. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed method can successfully simulate the elemental motions, referred to as therbligs, of reaching and positioning (Pearson’s correlation coefficient is found to equal 0.80 and 0.94, respectively), while the simulation of the assembling therblig requires further investigation. The contribution of this study is a virtual reality–motion captured-enabled ergonomic risk assessment method applied to workstation design for offsite construction production lines. In addition, the deployment of the proposed method allows a holistic ergonomic assessment that considers objective and subjective parameters.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data (anonymized data collected during research experiments), models (VR models), or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the technical writing assistance of Kristin Berg. The authors also express their gratitude to Melissa McNeil for assisting in designing the 3D scenes used in the VR model, to Mohammad Darwish, Ammar Muhrez, and Anas Itani for assembling the physical prototypes, to Anas Itani for providing the design options evaluated in this study, and to all the volunteers that participated in the experiment. The authors also acknowledge the support from their industry partner, All Weather Windows. This work was supported by the University of Alberta and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery (Grant No. RGPIN-2019-04585) and Collaborative Research and Development (Grant No. CRDPJ 533884-18).
References
Anderson, M. J., and P. J. Whitcomb. 2017. DOE simplified: Practical tools for effective experimentation. London: CRC Press.
Aromaa, S., and K. Väänänen. 2016. “Suitability of virtual prototypes to support human factors/ergonomics evaluation during the design.” Appl. Ergon. 56 (Sep): 11–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2016.02.015.
Azizi, A., P. Ghafoorpoor Yazdi, and M. Hashemipour. 2019. “Interactive design of storage unit utilizing virtual reality and ergonomic framework for production optimization in manufacturing industry.” Int. J. Interact. Des. Manuf. 13 (1): 373–381. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-018-0501-9.
Battini, D., C. Martina, P. Alessandro, S. Fabio, V. Valentina, and I. Zennaro. 2018. “Integrating mocap system and immersive reality for efficient human-centred workstation design.” IFAC Papers Online 51 (11): 188–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.08.256.
Bortolini, M., M. Gamberi, F. Pilati, and A. Regattieri. 2018. “Automatic assessment of the ergonomic risk for manual manufacturing and assembly activities through optical motion capture technology.” Procedia CIRP 72 (Jan): 81–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2018.03.198.
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. 2017. “What are work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs).” Accessed August 20, 2019. http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/rmirsi.html.
Caputo, F., A. Greco, E. D’Amato, I. Notaro, and S. Spada. 2018a. “On the use of virtual reality for a human-centered workplace design.” Proc. Struct. Integr. 8 (Jan): 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2017.12.031.
Caputo, F., A. Greco, E. D’Amato, I. Notaro, and S. Spada. 2018b. “A preventive ergonomic approach based on virtual and immersive reality.” Adv. Ergon. Des. 588 (Jul): 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60582-1_1.
Charness, G., U. Gneezy, and M. A. Kuhn. 2012. “Experimental methods: Between-subject and within-subject design.” J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 81 (1): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.08.009.
David, G. C. 2005. “Ergonomic methods for assessing exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders.” Occup. Med. 55 (3): 190–199. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqi082.
Davila Delgado, J. M., L. Oyedele, P. Demian, and T. Beach. 2020. “A research agenda for augmented and virtual reality in architecture, engineering and construction.” Adv. Eng. Inform. 45 (10): 101122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2020.101122.
Deviprasad, T., and T. Kesavadas. 2003. “Virtual prototyping of assembly components using process modeling.” J. Manuf. Syst. 22 (1): 16–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0278-6125(03)90002-1.
Dias Barkokebas, R., M. Al-Hussein, and X. Li. 2021. “Virtual reality–motion capture-based ergonomic risk assessment of workstation designs of construction manufacturing facilities.” In Proc., Construction Specialty Conf. 2021. Point Claire, QC, Canada: Canadian Society of Civil Engineering.
Dias Barkokebas, R., and X. Li. 2021. “Use of virtual reality to assess the ergonomic risk of industrialized construction tasks.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 147 (3): 04020183. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001997.
Dias Barkokebas, R., C. Ritter, X. Li, and M. Al-Hussein. 2020. “Application of virtual reality to perform ergonomic risk assessment in industrialized construction: Experiment design.” In Proc., Construction Research Congress 2020: Construction Research and Innovation to Transform Society. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Diego-Mas, J.-A., R. Poveda-Bautista, and D.-C. Garzon-Leal. 2015. “Influences on the use of observational methods by practitioners when identifying risk factors in physical work.” Ergon 58 (10): 1660–1670. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2015.1023851.
Fellows, R. F., and A. M. M. Liu. 2008. Research methods for construction. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ferguson, D. 2000. Therbligs: The keys to simplifying work. New York: The Gilbreth.
Feyen, R., Y. Liu, D. Chaffin, G. Jimmerson, and B. Joseph. 2000. “Computer-aided ergonomics: A case study of incorporating ergonomics analyses into workplace design.” Appl. Ergon. 31 (3): 291–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-6870(99)00053-8.
Fletcher, S. R., T. L. Johnson, and J. Thrower. 2018. “A study to trial the use of inertial non-optical motion capture for ergonomic analysis of manufacturing work.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part B: J. Eng. Manuf. 232 (1): 90–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0954405416660997.
Freivalds, A. 2014. Standards and work design. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Golabchi, A., S. Han, and A. R. Fayek. 2016. “A fuzzy logic approach to posture-based ergonomic analysis for field observation and assessment of construction manual operations.” Can. J. Civ. Eng. 43 (4): 294–303. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2015-0143.
Hadikusumo, B. H. W., and S. Rowlinson. 2002. “Integration of virtually real construction model and design-for-safety-process database.” Autom. Constr. 11 (5): 501–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-5805(01)00061-9.
Hart, S. G., and L. E. Staveland. 1988. “Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research.” Adv. Psychol. 52 (8): 139–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4115(08)62386-9.
Hignett, S., and L. McAtamney. 2000. “Rapid entire body assessment (REBA).” Appl. Ergon. 31 (2): 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-6870(99)00039-3.
Huang, T., C. W. Kong, H. L. Guo, A. Baldwin, and H. Li. 2007. “A virtual prototyping system for simulating construction processes.” Autom. Constr. 16 (5): 576–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2006.09.007.
Jia, B., S. Kim, and M. A. Nussbaum. 2011. “An EMG-based model to estimate lumbar muscle forces and spinal loads during complex, high-effort tasks: Development and application to residential construction using prefabricated walls.” Int. J. Ind. Ergon. 41 (5): 437–446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2011.03.004.
Li, H., G. Chan, and M. Skitmore. 2012a. “Multiuser virtual safety training system for tower crane dismantlement.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng. 26 (5): 638–647. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CP.1943-5487.0000170.
Li, H., N. K. Y. Chan, T. Huang, M. Skitmore, and J. Yang. 2012b. “Virtual prototyping for planning bridge construction.” Autom. Constr. 27 (Apr): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.04.009.
Li, X., S. Han, M. Gül, M. Al-Hussein, and M. El-Rich. 2018. “3D visualization-based ergonomic risk assessment and work modification framework and its validation for a lifting task.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 144 (1): 04017093. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001412.
McAtamney, L., and E. N. Corlett. 1993. “RULA: A survey method for the investigation of work-related upper limb disorders.” Appl. Ergon. 24 (2): 91–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-6870(93)90080-S.
Meredith, G. P. 1953. “Theory of the ‘Therblig’.” J. Occup. Psychol. 27 (8): 128–136.
Paravizo, E., and D. Braatz. 2019. “Using a game engine for simulation in ergonomics analysis, design and education: An exploratory study.” Appl. Ergon. 77 (Jan): 22–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2019.01.001.
Peruzzini, M., S. Carassai, M. Pellicciari, and A. O. Andrisano. 2016. “Human-centred design of ergonomic workstations on interactive digital mock-ups.” In Proc., Int. Joint Conf. on Mechanical, Design Engineering & Advanced Manufacturing. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Peruzzini, M., F. Grandi, S. Cavallaro, and M. Pellicciari. 2020a. “Using virtual manufacturing to design human-centric factories: An industrial case.” Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Syst. 115 (3): 873–887. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-06229-2.
Peruzzini, M., F. Grandi, and M. Pellicciari. 2020b. “Exploring the potential of Operator 4.0 interface and monitoring.” Comput. Ind. Eng. 139 (5): 105600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2018.12.047.
Peruzzini, M., M. Pellicciari, and M. Gadaleta. 2019. “A comparative study on computer-integrated set-ups to design human-centred manufacturing systems.” Robot. Comput.-Integr. Manuf. 55 (Mar): 265–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcim.2018.03.009.
Pontonnier, C., A. Samani, M. Badawi, P. Madeleine, and G. Dumont. 2014. “Assessing the ability of a VR-based assembly task simulation to evaluate physical risk factors.” IEEE Trans. Visual Comput. Graphics 20 (5): 664–674. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2013.252.
Public Services Health & Safety Association. 2010. “Repetitive work: Could you please repeat that … again and again and again?” Accessed August 20, 2010. https://www.pshsa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/RepetitiveWorkInjury.pdf.
Ray, S. J., and J. Teizer. 2012. “Real-time construction worker posture analysis for ergonomics training.” Adv. Eng. Inform. 26 (2): 439–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2012.02.011.
Rezazadeh, I. M., X. Wang, M. Firoozabadi, and M. R. Hashemi Golpayegani. 2011. “Using affective human–machine interface to increase the operation performance in virtual construction crane training system: A novel approach.” Autom. Constr. 20 (3): 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.10.005.
Roman-Liu, D. 2014. “Comparison of concepts in easy-to-use methods for MSD risk assessment.” Appl. Ergon 45 (3): 420–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.05.010.
Salmon, P. M., G. H. Walker, M. Read, G. J. Goode, and N. A. Stanton. 2017. “Fitting methods to paradigms: Are ergonomics methods fit for systems thinking?” Ergon 60 (2): 194–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2015.1103385.
Seth, A., J. M. Vance, and J. H. Oliver. 2011. “Virtual reality for assembly methods prototyping: A review.” Virtual Real 15 (May): 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-009-0153-y.
Taylor, R. 1990. “Interpretation of the correlation coefficient: A basic review.” J. Diagn. Med. Sonogr. 6 (1): 35–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/875647939000600106.
Vignais, N., M. Miezal, G. Bleser, K. Mura, D. Gorecky, and F. Marin. 2013. “Innovative system for real-time ergonomic feedback in industrial manufacturing.” Appl. Ergon. 44 (4): 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2012.11.008.
Vosniakos, G.-C., J. Deville, and E. Matsas. 2017. “On immersive virtual environments for assessing human-driven assembly of large mechanical parts.” Procedia Manuf. 11 (Oct): 1263–1270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2017.07.253.
Wang, D., F. Dai, and X. Ning. 2015. “Risk assessment of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in construction: State-of-the-art review.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 141 (6): 04015008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000979.
Wang, J., S. Han, and X. Li. 2021. “3D fuzzy ergonomic analysis for rapid workplace design and modification in construction.” Autom. Constr. 123 (10): 103521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103521.
Wolfartsberger, J. 2019. “Analyzing the potential of virtual reality for engineering design review.” Autom. Constr. 104 (May): 27–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.03.018.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148 • Issue 8 • August 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 28, 2021
Accepted: Mar 22, 2022
Published online: May 23, 2022
Published in print: Aug 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Oct 23, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
Cited by
- Zhen Lei, Qian Chen, Mohammed Sadiq Altaf, Ke Cao, Defining Information Requirements for Off-Site Construction Management: An Industry Case Study from Canada, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 10.1061/JCEMD4.COENG-15141, 150, 12, (2024).
- Mohamed Assaf, Mohamed Al-Hussein, Xinming Li, Critical Review of Virtual Reality Applications in Offsite Construction Research, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 10.1061/JCEMD4.COENG-14837, 150, 11, (2024).
- Jinchi Han, Chen Chen, Robert Lee Kong Tiong, Kan Wu, Daryl Kok Hoong Chew, Strategic Workforce Planning for Production of Prefabricated Bathroom Units: An Advanced Markovian Approach, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 10.1061/JCEMD4.COENG-14514, 150, 8, (2024).
- Regina Dias Barkokebas, Xinming Li, VR-RET: A Virtual Reality–Based Approach for Real-Time Ergonomics Training on Industrialized Construction Tasks, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 10.1061/JCEMD4.COENG-13433, 149, 10, (2023).
- Yu Tao, Hao Hu, Feng Xu, Zhipeng Zhang, Ergonomic Risk Assessment of Construction Workers and Projects Based on Fuzzy Bayesian Network and D-S Evidence Theory, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 10.1061/JCEMD4.COENG-12821, 149, 6, (2023).
- Tianxin Li, Zhongfu Li, Long Li, Peng Jiang, Exploring the Knowledge Domain of Risk Management in Prefabricated Construction, Buildings, 10.3390/buildings12111784, 12, 11, (1784), (2022).