Fatigue mitigation through the optimization of ergonomic positional parameters in massage therapy using virtual instrumentation

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• 作者：Suryanarayanan Murali (1)
  S. Vignesh Shanmugam (1)
  G. Arun Prasaad (1)
  M. Sarath Kumar (1)
  C. Manoharan (1)
  S. R. Devadasan (2)
  R. Murugesh (3)
  
• 关键词：Fatigue ; Ergonomics ; Human factors ; Massage therapy ; Virtual instrumentation ; Body postures
• 刊名：The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：January 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：70
• 期：1-4
• 页码：173-184
• 全文大小：804 KB
• 作者单位：Suryanarayanan Murali (1)
  S. Vignesh Shanmugam (1)
  G. Arun Prasaad (1)
  M. Sarath Kumar (1)
  C. Manoharan (1)
  S. R. Devadasan (2)
  R. Murugesh (3)
  
  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
  2. Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
  3. Darshan Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajkot, Gujarat, India
  
• ISSN：1433-3015

文摘

This paper reports a research in which a setup was developed to determine the optimal values of ergonomic positional parameters that would mitigate the development of fatigue while performing massage therapy. This setup was based on virtual instrumentation principles and consisted of a sphygmomanometer bulb, an air sac, a pressure sensor, a data acquisition card and a personal computer installed with the Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineers Workbench software (LABView software). The air sac fitted in this setup is equalised with the muscles and other human body parts which a human therapist is required to press while performing massage therapy. After constructing the air sac fatigue monitoring virtual instrumentation setup, 25 participants who were not actually massage therapists were asked to press the air sac to mimic the behaviour of the massage therapists during the time of their works. After drawing necessary data by performing this activity and by entering the data in Minitab 16 software, regression models to specify optimal values of ergonomic positional parameters were developed. These regression models were practically validated by conducting experiments involving five other participants. The method of utilizing these regression models in determining the optimum values of positional parameters that would mitigate fatigue development while performing massage therapy is illustrated by presenting two cases. While concluding, it is suggested to involve actual massage therapists for testing the performance of the fatigue monitoring virtual instrumentation setup developed during the research reported in this paper.