Study of manufacturing system to flexibly suit aged workers' skill and health

本研究的目的是建立一个制造系统的设计方法，以灵活地适应老年工人的技能和健康。首先调查了运动员的特点，然后通过实验建立了运动员技能与健康的评价方法。结果如下：（1）作为对55名老年男性和女性受试者（包括年轻人）进行的材料处理实验的结果，由于年龄的增长，身体机能下降，但在中年时，技术技能有所增加。（2）建立了人体关节力矩可视化的人体动力学模型和操作人体模型的人机交互界面，实现了肌肉骨骼负荷的个体化评价。（3）在分型操作和显微镜作业中测量血压、肌电图和呼吸模式等生命反应。研究发现，随着学习的进行，生理时间序列数据沿着趋于稳定。（4）作业疲劳、生理负荷和心理负荷是影响健康的因素。通过对从事体力劳动和脑力劳动的人进行实验，发现拇指尖的皮肤血流量和血压会因各种因素而发生变化。（5）以皮肤血流量作为健康指标，进行了皮肤血流量与作业操作关系的实验研究。结果表明，肘关节带角加速度的伸展和收缩运动能有效地提高皮肤血流量。研究结果为制造系统设计方法的概念提供了许多启示，以灵活地适应老年工人的技能和健康。

The purpose of the study is to establish a design methodology of the manufacturing system to flexibly suit aged workers' skill and health. First, their characteristics were surveyed, secondly, some experiments were carried out to establish the evaluation methods for the skill and health. The results are as follows :(1)As a result of an experiment in the material handling conducted for fifty five elderly male and female subjects including young people, the physical functions were declined due to aging, but the increase in the technical skill was seen at the middle age.(2)Human body dynamography to visualize the human body joint torque and a human interface to manipulate the computer manikin were developed for the individual evaluation of muscloskeletal load.(3)Vital reactions in blood pressure, EMG, and breath pattern were measured in typing operation and microscopic task. It was found that the physiological time series data trended to be stable along with learning.(4)Fatigue in work operations, physiological burden, and mental burden were chosen as the factors which hurted the health. As a result of some experiments in heavy work with hand and mental work, skin blood flow on the tip of thumb and blood pressure were found to change depending on the factors.(5)Skin blood flow was taken as an index of health, and an experiment was carried out to investigate the relationship between skin blood flow and work operation. As a result, it was found that expanding and constructing motion of elbow joint with angular acceleration raised skin blood flow efficiently.The results of the study give many hints to the concept for design methods of manufacturing system to flexibly suit aged workers' skill and health.