Assessing the Ability of a VR-Based Assembly Task Simulation to Evaluate Physical Risk Factors

Area of Science:

• Ergonomics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Virtual environments (VE) offer cost-effective and convenient alternatives to real environments (RE) for workstation design and ergonomic assessments.
• Evaluating ergonomic features in VE is preferred over constructing physical mock-ups, streamlining the design process.
• Virtual reality (VR) based simulators are increasingly explored for assessing physical risk factors in occupational settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of a VR-based assembly task simulator in assessing physical risk factors relevant to ergonomics.
• To compare objective and subjective discomfort indicators between real and virtual environments during assembly tasks.
• To investigate the influence of task timing and complexity on ergonomic assessments in both RE and VE.

Main Methods:

• Sixteen subjects performed simplified assembly tasks in both real (RE) and virtual environments (VE).
• Objective indicators, including upper body motion and muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity, were recorded.
• Subjective indicators such as rated perceived exertion (RPE) and questionnaire responses were collected.

Main Results:

• Objective measures indicated significantly lower physical activity and exposure in VE compared to RE.
• Subjective measures revealed higher perceived discomfort in VE than in RE.
• Good correlation was observed between RE and VE for six objective ergonomic indicators.

Conclusions:

• VR-based ergonomic studies for assembly tasks present challenges due to opposing objective and subjective discomfort trends.
• Objective and subjective discomfort measurements, crucial for minimizing work-related musculoskeletal disorders, show divergent patterns in RE vs. VE.
• The significant correlation between RE and VE objective indicators suggests VR simulators hold promise for ergonomic assessments.