Monitoring human activities that might cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders by means of inertial and magnetic sensors

Activity recognition based on new wearable technologies is considered a key research challenge in the field of applied ergonomics. Deterioration of workers' physical health and loss of workdays impact not only on their wellbeing and quality of life, but also on European countries economy. Musculoskeletal disorders are injuries or pain affecting muscles, joints and tendons. If these disorders are work related are described as Work related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Inertial and magnetic sensor units (IMUs) might open new perspectives in detection and objective measure of WMSDs because they allow to collect data on work activities under free conditions and over extended periods of time. The evolution of technologies has observed not only improvement in measurement accuracy and precision, but also a reduction in intrusiveness and an enhanced fit of the measure technologies.