Assessing Operator Wellbeing through Physiological Measurements in Real-Time—Towards Industrial Application †

Abstract

This article focuses on how operator wellbeing can be assessed to ensure social sustainability and operator performance at assembly stations. Rapid technological advances provide possibilities for assessing wellbeing in real-time, and from an assembly system perspective, this could enable the assessment of physiological data in real-time. While technology is available, it has not been implemented or tested in industry. The aim of this paper was to investigate empirically how concurrent physiological measurement technologies can be integrated into an industrial application, in order to increase operator wellbeing and operator performance. A mixed method approach was used, which included a literature study, two laboratory tests, two case studies and a workshop. The results indicated that operator wellbeing could be assessed through electro-dermal activity, but that the data is perceived as difficult to interpret. For an industrial application, operator perception and data presentation are important and risks connected to personal integrity and IT-support need to be addressed. Future work includes testing how a combination of physiological measures and self-assessments can be used to assess operator wellbeing in an industrial context.