Development Of A Low Cost System For Lifting Related Injury Analysis

Abstract

In the developing countries, most of the Manual Material Handling (MMH) related tasks are labor-intensive. It is not possible for these countries to assess injuries during lifting heavy weight, as multi-camera motion capture, force plate and electromyography (EMG) systems are very expensive. In this study, we proposed an easy to use, portable and low cost system, which will help the developing countries to evaluate injuries for their workers. The system consists of two hardware and three software. The joint angle profiles are collected using smartphone camera and Kinovea software. The vertical Ground Reaction Force (GRF) is collected using Wii balance board and Brainblox software. Finally, the musculoskeletal analysis is performed using OpenSim Static Optimization tool to find the muscle force. The system will give us access to a comprehensive biomechanical analysis, from collecting joint angle profiles to generating muscle force profiles. This proposed framework has the potential to assess and prevent MMH related injuries in developing countries.