Integrating mocap system and immersive reality for efficient human-centred workstation design

The paper presents the VR-Ergo Log system, an inertial motion capture system integrated with immersive reality and combined with a heart rate monitoring. By using immersive reality, the operator will be able to move and interact within a virtual workplace environment, in order to permit a fast and efficient ergonomic assessment of future workplace solutions and to avoid all cost-consuming activities related to the pre-production design of the workplace or to the prototyping of new products. This integrated system allows to evaluate in advance the time based and ergo based indices which can help the practitioners on understanding how to design the workplace and the devices to be used by operators. In addition, the use of the heart rate monitor permits to have a real-time feedback regarding the fatigue the operator is perceiving. The use of such a system will help to make more efficient the early design phases of an industrial workspace, by also considering the impact of human diversity and avoiding non-ergonomic solutions especially when an ageing workforce will be enrolled in the system. (C) 2018, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.