Development of a methodology for analysis
and evaluation of the ergonomic design of hand tools and posterior
development of a biomechanical model for simulation of tools usage
Abstract:
The main objective of the research
project is the establishment of a methodology for analyzing and
evaluating the ergonomic design of hand tools. The first stage
identified the main problems associated with using such tools based
on a field study on a significant number of subjects experienced in
the use of the tools. Subsequently the physiological causes
associated to the problems or inconvenience for each tool were
investigated experimentally. For this purpose, a test protocol was
applied over several subjects, properly instrumented, while using
different tools. Finally the development of a biomechanical model to
simulate the use of tools, was started, with the final aim of
evaluating new designs a priori. The resulting model was a
preliminary graphical model developed in ADAMS, commercial package
for analysis of mechanisms.
