Applied Ergonomics最新文献

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are a rapidly expanding technology that operates within the larger complex aviation system. As a result, protective frameworks and risk controls for supporting safe operation are still developing. Adverse events are occurring, yet it is unclear what systemic factors interact to create them. To identify vulnerabilities in the broader Australian RPAS network, this study used AcciMap to analyse a set of adverse RPAS events investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Investigation reports into RPAS incidents in Australia (n = 14) were identified and analysed in-depth with AcciMap; individual AcciMaps were constructed for each adverse event. The data was then aggregated to create a network of contributory factors across the RPAS network in Australia. The findings revealed 232 individual contributory factors across five of the six AcciMap levels. The contributory factors were then coded using a pre-existing classification scheme to identify 31 contributory factor themes. The highest proportion of contributory factors were at the lower operational and equipment levels of the system; these factors included Equipment, technology and resources; Activity, work and operations; and Compliance with procedures, violations and unsafe acts. According to systems theory and previous analyses using AcciMap, we would expect to find organisational, regulatory and government contributory factors, yet such factors were limited in this sample. Further research is required to explore the factors across the entire sociotechnical system that contribute to adverse RPAS events.

Home care workers are affected by musculoskeletal disorders caused by biomechanical factors. This study investigated the effect of three exoskeletons devices (HAPO, HAPO FRONT and Japet.W) during load mobilization tasks at three bed heights in order to reduce physical risk factor. Anterior deltoid and longissimus bilateral muscular activities were recorded by EMG, a force platform was used to record center of pressure (CoP) displacement, and perceived exertion parameters were assessed using the Borg scale while nineteen healthy subjects performed a load manipulation. The use of the HAPO FRONT decreased global muscular activity by 5,6% and deltoid activity by 10,7%, exoskeletons reduced perceived effort, from 42% to 25%. Bed height has an inverse effect on deltoid and longissimus activity. These findings show that exoskeletons can reduce perceived effort and for overall and deltoids muscular activity. Therefore, the combination of shoulder and low back assistance appears as an interesting line of thought.

Emergency departments accommodate high-acuity patients in complex, high risk environments with high variability in patient flow and resource availability. Strategies for enabling adaptive capacity are necessary for adjusting activities in response to the variability of overall workload and individual patient acuity. This study aims to identify and describe the strategies used by lead-nurses to inform recommendations for training and education. 14 lead-nurses participated in focus group discussions using a table-top sandbox simulation to trigger for reflection on decisions, trade-offs and strategies for handling difficult situations during everyday work. The sandbox simulation was intended to focus the discussions on situation assessment, problem-solving strategies and cognitive challenges. The simulation and following discussions were audio- and video recorded and analysed with reflexive thematic analysis. The results illustrate how lead-nurses work towards maintaining an equilibrium between monitoring and coordinating efforts. This result underlines the complex continuous process of adjusting work and resources to situational conditions and demands. The lead-nurse's work is about balancing strategies for monitoring the ED and coordinating care. This balance is important for solving problems here and now while minimising the effects of shifting problems between parts of the ED system or to later points in time. This should be explored further with the question of what strategies that could be standardised versus which should remain adaptive before designing training regimes for adaptive strategies.

In-vehicle Head-Up Displays (HUDs) are expected to incorporate more information in the future, necessitating deeper understandings of design properties that can enhance display safety and efficiency. However, the optimal display characteristics-particularly in terms of area and shape-remain inadequately understood. This study investigated these two factors by manipulating horizontal and vertical Field of View (FOV) angles within a simulated in-vehicle HUD. Thirty-one participants participated in this laboratory-based study they completed a digit matching task while driving within a driving simulator. The accuracy and response time of the task served as indicators for efficiency. The standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP) was employed to assess area and shape's impacts on driving performance, alongside subjective ease-of-use evaluations. Results indicated that an increase in horizontal FOV angle significantly delay response times and reduce ease-of-use ratings. We also observed significant effects of area and shape on response time and ratings; specifically, participants responded faster in smaller display area conditions, which were also rated as the easiest to use. Accuracy, however, was largely unaffected by size and shape. Importantly, most manipulations did not interfere with driving performance, except for the area 500 condition, wherein landscape shape was associated with better lane-keeping performance. Our findings provide valuable insights for the design of in-vehicle HUDs.

Spatial Disorientation (SD) can cause critical aviation accidents by adversely affecting the pilot's ability to perform a flight mission. One of the strategies to improve pilots' ability to deal with SD is to perform SD training using Virtual Reality and Motion Simulator (VRMS) system. However, there is still a lack of studies that investigated the application of VRMS for SD training. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop and validate VRMS-based SD scenarios. Twenty-two male Air Force fighter pilots (11 in the low experienced group and 11 in the high experienced group) participated in a controlled experiment in which they performed the flight task under two conditions (SD flight, non-SD flight), wherein the SD flight condition included the induction of four distinct SD illusions. Findings showed that the developed SD scenarios in the VRMS system effectively induce SD. More specifically, there were differences in the influence of flight experience and SD condition on pilots' flight performance and workload. This study suggests that the VRMS system can demonstrate several types of SD scenarios effectively and has a huge potential to be utilized as an SD training tool to improve overall flight safety.

Human system interface design in industrial process control is guided by industry standards, human factors best practices, and domain-specific conventions, and often there is a conflict between one or more of the sources of design input for specific design elements. In the nuclear domain, one design element for which conflict arises is the use of color to represent equipment state. This study evaluates the tradeoffs associated with using color in a process control display versus using white and shades of gray. The performance metrics were response time, accuracy, and eye movement metrics using a simplified experimental task and professional operators. Results revealed that adhering to color conventions in nuclear power yielded small advantages in simple tasks, but did not exist for more complex tasks. The results did not provide strong evidence for or against using a particular color scheme and revealed the need for further research on the use of color for commercial nuclear power plants and other process control industries.

We examined fatigue among emergency department (ED) clinicians. ED clinicians are susceptible to burnout, because of fatigue. Fatigue represents a latent hazard in ED care, being associated with impaired clinician performance, poor patient outcomes, and a negative impact on patient safety. Thirty-five pediatric clinicians were surveyed at the beginning and end of their shifts. The 20-item Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory survey was used to evaluate fatigue. Paired t-tests were used to examine whether fatigue scores changed over the course of a shift. The associations between the five fatigue subscales and various factors were modeled with multilevel linear regressions. Surveys (N = 827) were administered over 425 shifts. Clinician fatigue depended on time spent within the shift, shift type, clinician's gender, age, and clinician's role. Analysis showed other individual characteristics and shift factors also may affect fatigue. Clinicians with varying fatigue levels have different needs that should be considered in information technology design and evaluation.

The need to train non-technical skills (NTS) has seen a growing emphasis in recent literature, as they have been associated with improved patient outcomes. NTS training often utilizes live simulations where healthcare workers can practice these skills, but simulations like this can be expensive and resource intensive to run. Training technical skills using extended reality tools (e.g., virtual, augmented, or mixed reality) has seen a growth in popularity across healthcare domains, however, the use of XR to train specific interpersonal and cognitive skills comprises a smaller part of the literature. As such, this study aims to scope the literature to identify how NTS have been trained through XR-based systems. The specific aims were to identify: 1) which NTS are being trained in healthcare, 2) which modality of XR these skills are being trained in, 3) what specialties are using XR to train NTS in healthcare, and 4) potential areas for future work. Based on consistent search terms for each database, 18,984 articles were initially retrieved, and articles were removed per the screening criteria. Results from the 15 included articles show that the most common NTS construct evaluated was communication (80%), the most common XR modality was virtual reality (80%), and the most common healthcare domain was surgery (46.7%). These articles found that training NTS in XR can lead to comparable, or better, learning outcomes compared to traditional methods. However, future work may look to consider additional NTS in training, improve interaction with XR environments, and measure NTS with XR technology.

Managing multiple tasks simultaneously often results in performance decrements due to limited cognitive resources. Task prioritization, requiring effective cognitive control, is a strategy to mitigate these effects and is influenced by the stability-flexibility dilemma. While previous studies have investigated the stability-flexibility dilemma in fully manual multitasking environments, this study explores how cognitive control modes interact with automation reliability. While no significant interaction between control mode and automation reliability was observed in single multitasking performance, our findings demonstrate that overall task performance benefits from a flexible cognitive control mode when automation is reliable. However, when automation is unreliable, a stable cognitive control mode improves manual takeover performance, though this comes at the expense of secondary task performance. Furthermore, cognitive control modes and automation reliability independently affect various eye-tracking metrics and mental workload. These findings underscore the need to integrate cognitive control and automation reliability into adaptive assistance systems, particularly during the perceive stage, to enhance safety in human-machine systems.

Manufacturing companies constantly seek opportunities to improve operational efficiency without compromising employee well-being. Ergonomics can contribute to both goals, but its role is often limited to well-being. This longitudinal corporate case study followed retrospectively the effects of work development for five years in a manufacturing company's assembly line and welding unit. The aim was to analyse how these development activities impacted employee well-being and productivity. In the assembly line, ergonomics-oriented development processes led to a profit of EUR 1,130,810 and a reduced physical workload. In contrast, the welding unit implemented only two development activities, resulting in a smaller profit of EUR 278,721, with no noticeable decrease in physical workload. This study suggests that continuous activity in production development utilising ergonomics data collected from the work leads to sustainable productivity and improvements in employee well-being.