| Summary: | Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are chronic occupational injuries that are common in lean production due to excessive work or repetition. They are considered to be the main cause of disability and absenteeism, reduced production and increased costs. A large number of studies have shown that most of the discomforts are located in the upper body area, but few studies have focused on assessing the degree of exposure in the hand area. The main objective of this thesis is to develop a low-cost wearable device in order to prevent and assess the potential exposure risks of MSDs in the hand. To that end, this thesis includes an evaluation of ergonomic assessment methods, a prototype development of a low-cost wearable, and experimental research in order to implement functional additive manufactured materials to that prototype. In the evaluation study, seven ergonomic assessing measurements were selected for comparison and analysis through an optimised questionnaire and expert interview. It has been concluded that the Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) method is currently the most suitable measurement technology for hand MSDs risk assessment. For the prototype development, Arduino-based hardware modules were selected, and a functional prototype for tracking index finger and thumb movements in real-time is built with the quaternion-based core algorithm. Finally, a prototype of the wearable is developed using electrically conductive materials deposited via Additive manufacturing. Several conductive filaments are tested, and an optimised method is employed to avoid cross-contamination effects.
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