Advancing the practice of proactive ergonomics by innovating tools and applications using digital human modeling

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The purpose of this research program is to develop innovative tools and applications to advance the practice of proactive ergonomics. Equipped with these tools and applications, ergonomists and health and safety professionals will be able to recognize and eliminate workplace hazards that are known to cause injury, before a worker becomes injured. Improved tools to apply proactive ergonomics will help these professionals mend the working environment for working Canadian's, dramatically reducing the number of costly, debilitating work-related injuries. A reduction in work-related injuries is important to ensure the Canadian workforce remains vibrant and sustainable, but also to reduce the financial burden of injury related costs, improving the bottom line for Canadian companies. Generating and evolving tools to advance proactive ergonomics requires the ability to predict or simulate how a worker might perform in their workplace. These predictions or simulations can be achieved using digital human modeling (DHM). Video gaming is a popular example of DHM in action, where virtual humans are programmed to simulate the movements and actions of famous athletes or prominent individuals. Applied to ergonomics, DHM allows health and safety professionals to proactively detect harmful or hazardous ergonomic risks, by assessing the performance of a simulated worker, before actual employees are unduly exposed. However, the ability to use digital human models for this purpose depends on how well they simulate how workers will move and how they will apply forces to complete a job task, particularly with respect to their capacity (strength or balance for example). This research program will improve our ability to predict a workers capacity, and in the context of that capacity, we will generate distinct methods to estimate how workers apply forces (both how much and in what direction) to complete task objectives. Knowledgeable, well trained ergonomists, industrial engineers and health and safety professionals, equipped with effective proactive ergonomics tools will have a direct impact on reducing the number of workplace injuries in Canada.