Human-robot Interaction for Reducing Musculoskeletal Risk Factors in Workers

In this work, we implemented a scenario where humans collaborate with a cooperative robot to prevent musculoskeletal disorders during screw assembly tasks. The worker screw assembly motion is determined by the screw assembly position, and posture is evaluated using the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) tool. By considering the worker body size and screw assembly position, we assess the posture the worker will adopt and its evaluation. If the predicted posture indicates a risk of musculoskeletal disorders, the robot adjusts the position and angle of the assembly parts to correct the worker's posture. The results of our proposed method show that the risk of musculoskeletal disorders is lower in the evaluated postures compared to those without robot collaboration.