Development of support systems for capturing and reducing the hand-arm-stress

Abstract

The human is permanently confronted with different stress factors, for example during an assembly process. In this case an extreme body postures with a high force transmission can be injurious the health. Additionally a high stress on the hand can cause pain and lead to the so-called rhizarthrose. The stress factors can be captured and reduced by using support systems. This work concentrates on the development of support systems for capturing and reducing the stress on the hand-arm-joints. The developing starts with a research on sensors and support systems which have already been applied for the upper body and for manual work. Subsequently first systems are being developed systematically and demonstrated on a process example. The results show the objective capture and reduction of the hand-arm-stress.