Feasibility of Onsite Biomechanical Analysis during Ladder Climbing

Injuries from falls and overexertion during ladder climbing activities are common in construction. To prevent ladder-related injuries, it is important to understand why those injuries occur. Thus, there has been significant research effort put into identifying mechanisms and causes of falls and work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) from ladder climbing. These include epidemiological studies, studies on the mechanical aspects of ladder-related injuries, and biomechanical studies. Biomechanical analysis during ladder climbing has been implemented widely to understand the fundamental causes of ladder-related injuries in terms of musculoskeletal stresses on the human body. However, previous experimental approaches that use marker-based or IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit)-based motion capture and force transducers to collect motion and force data for biomechanical analysis are limited because of the difficulty in mimicking all of the possible situations that can happen during ladder climbing on actual worksites. To address this issue, we propose onsite biomechanical analysis for ladder-climbing activities by combining vision-based motion capture systems and force prediction models. To test the feasibility of the proposed method, we conducted a case study. As a result, we found that the method has true potential to broaden our understanding of the causes of falls from ladders and of WMSDs by estimating musculoskeletal stresses on the human body during ladder climbing without using any invasive measures.