Virtual Reality: Its Usefulness for Ergonomic Analysis

This paper presents the results of an effort to compare results of an experiment performed in both a virtual and a real environment. The research question addressed is if virtual reality is a suitable tool for performing ergonomic analysis. The subjects performed a palletizing task in the virtual environment and then performed the same task in the real environment. The results showed that VR can be compared to a similar experimental task in the real environment if it involves measuring only range of movements and no velocities or accelerations. This paper presents these results using a lumbar motion monitor and proposes areas for future improvement and research.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: WSC
• Authors: Lawrence E. Whitman, Michael Jorgensen, Kuresh Hathiyari, Don Malzahn
• Keywords: Modeling And Simulation, Real Environment, Virtual, Virtual Environment, WSC 2004