Ergonomics Measurements using Kinect with a Pose Correction Framework

Pierre Plantard, Hubert P. H. Shum and Franck Multon
Proceedings of the 2016 International Digital Human Modeling Symposium (DHM), 2016

Ergonomics Measurements using Kinect with a Pose Correction Framework

Abstract

Evaluation of potential risks of musculoskeletal disorders in real workstations is challenging as the environment is cluttered, which makes it difficult to correctly and accurately assess the pose of a worker. Being marker-free and calibration-free, Microsoft Kinect is a promising device to assess these poses, but it can deliver unreliable poses especially when occlusions occur. To overcome this problem, we propose to detect badly recognized body parts and to replace them by an appropriate combination of example poses gathered in a pre-recorded pose. The main contribution of this work is to organize the database as a filtered pose graph structure that enables the system to select relevant candidates for the combination: candidates that ensure continuity with the previous pose and similarity with the available reliable information. We applied the proposed method in a realistic environment that involved sub-optimal Kinect placement and several types of occlusions. An optoelectronic motion capture system was concurrently used to obtain ground truth joint angles. In an ergonomics context, we also computed Rapid Upper Limb Assessment RULA scores. This kind of ergonomics tool requires to rate the pose of the worker based on an estimation of the joint angles. These latter are then used to provide a global risk score. Results showed that when occlusions occur, the inaccurate raw Kinect data could be significantly improved using our correction method, leading to acceptable joint angles. As RULA calculation is based on angular thresholds, which tends to minimize the effect of joint angle errors, when these error values are not close to thresholds. However, for realistic scenarios with occlusions that lead to very large joint angle errors, the correction method also provided significantly better RULA scores. Our method opens new perspectives to define new fatigue or solicitation indexes based on continuous measurement contrary to classical static images used in ergonomics. As the computation time is very low, it also enables real-time feedback and interaction with the operator.

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BibTeX

@inproceedings{plantard16reliability,
 author={Plantard, Pierre and Shum, Hubert P. H. and Multon, Franck},
 booktitle={Proceedings of the 2016 International Digital Human Modeling Symposium},
 series={DHM '16},
 title={Ergonomics Measurements using Kinect with a Pose Correction Framework},
 year={2016},
 month={6},
 numpages={8},
 location={Montreal, Canada},
}

RIS

TY  - CONF
AU  - Plantard, Pierre
AU  - Shum, Hubert P. H.
AU  - Multon, Franck
T2  - Proceedings of the 2016 International Digital Human Modeling Symposium
TI  - Ergonomics Measurements using Kinect with a Pose Correction Framework
PY  - 2016
Y1  - 6 2016
ER  - 

Plain Text

Pierre Plantard, Hubert P. H. Shum and Franck Multon, "Ergonomics Measurements using Kinect with a Pose Correction Framework," in DHM '16: Proceedings of the 2016 International Digital Human Modeling Symposium, Montreal, Canada, Jun 2016.

Supporting Grants

Similar Research

Pierre Plantard, Hubert P. H. Shum and Franck Multon, "Usability of Corrected Kinect Measurement for Ergonomic Evaluation in Constrained Environment", International Journal Human Factors Modelling and Simulation (IJHFMS), 2017
Pierre Plantard, Hubert P. H. Shum, Anne-Sophie Le Pierres and Franck Multon, "Validation of an Ergonomic Assessment Method using Kinect Data in Real Workplace Conditions", Applied Ergonomics (AE), 2017
Pierre Plantard, Antoine Muller, Charles Pontonnier, Georges Dumont, Hubert P. H. Shum and Franck Multon, "Inverse Dynamics Based on Occlusion-Resistant Kinect Data: Is It Usable for Ergonomics?", International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics (IJIE), 2017
Pierre Plantard, Hubert P. H. Shum and Franck Multon, "Motion Analysis of Work Conditions using Commercial Depth Cameras in Real Industrial Conditions", DHM and Posturography, 2019
Pierre Plantard, Hubert P. H. Shum and Franck Multon, "Filtered Pose Graph for Efficient Kinect Pose Reconstruction", Multimedia Tools and Applications (MTAP), 2017

 

 

Last updated on 14 April 2024
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