Digital twin-based ergonomic risk assessment framework for maintenance technicians in near real time

Ergonomic risks that a worker experiences in the workplace are triggered by hazards and the level of exposure to those hazards. This chapter introduces three near real-time and comprehensive methods for ergonomic risk assessment among electric system maintenance technicians. It presents a digital twin-based ergonomic risk assessment framework including one optical method and two non-optical methods. The first and second methods are based on the REBA tool, and ergonomic risk is evaluated in a near real-time setting considering the external load. The last method is non-optical, and the ergonomic risk assessment is based on a novel approach instead of the REBA tool. Both non-optical and optical methods use the REBA tools for generating ergonomic risk, which is a well-known tool for ergonomic risk evaluation in job sites. This digital twin-based facilitates accurate and continuous monitoring of the worker's movements and posture.