Image processing based rapid upper limb assessment method

Abstract

Occupational Musculoskeletal System Disorders (OMSDs) are disorders that inflict a great deal of economical burden on enterprises and nations, decrease quality, productivity and cause inability to sustain livings of employees. One of the most important factor that cause OMSDs is working posture. In literature, there are various methods for determining risk levels of working postures. In this study because of its common usage, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment Method (RULA) that identfies hazard level created by working postures on employees' upper limb musculoskeletal health is selected for improving with image processing systems. It is necassary to improve RULA's performance due to complications stemming from its implementation method based on observation, lack of information on the best duration of observation, subjectivity on results and extensive analysis time etc. For compansate these requirements a modified method is proposed in this study named as Advanced RULA (ARULA). Reliability and validity analysis are implemented statistically for ARULA. As a result, ARULA is recommended as a practical tool for analyzing risk levels of working postures for tasks that contain intensive usage of upper extremity.