A customized system for whole-body vibration measurement

Area of Science:

• Engineering
• Occupational Health
• Measurement Science

Background:

• Whole-body vibration (WBV) monitoring is crucial for occupational health.
• Existing systems often lack autonomy for prolonged or remote field measurements.
• There is a need for robust instrumentation capable of capturing complex vibration data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the technical specifications and performance of a custom WBV instrumentation system.
• To validate the system's accelerometers against established standards for field measurements.
• To demonstrate the system's readiness for autonomous, prolonged WBV data collection.

Main Methods:

• Developed a custom WBV system integrating a microcontroller, accelerometers, force sensors, GPS, and data storage.
• Validated system accelerometers against reference accelerometers using a motion simulator.
• Employed complex vibration profiles from ISO 7096:2020 for testing operator seat vibration.

Main Results:

• Custom system accelerometers showed ≤ 2.21% error in RMS amplitude measurements.
• Sample-to-sample RMS deviation from reference accelerometers was < 0.03 g.
• Frequency-domain analysis indicated minor, practically insignificant underestimation of signal power at low frequencies.

Conclusions:

• The custom WBV instrumentation system is technically ready for autonomous, prolonged field measurements.
• The system demonstrates high accuracy in capturing WBV data, suitable for occupational exposure monitoring.
• Future work includes real-world validation and utilizing force sensors for posture analysis to enhance utility.