title: A data-driven approach to modeling physical fatigue in the workplace using wearable sensors.
abstract: Wearable sensors are currently being used to manage fatigue in professional athletics, transportation and mining industries. In manufacturing, physical fatigue is a challenging ergonomic/safety "issue" since it lowers productivity and increases the incidence of accidents. Therefore, physical fatigue must be managed. There are two main goals for this study. First, we examine the use of wearable sensors to detect physical fatigue occurrence in simulated manufacturing tasks. The second goal is to estimate the physical fatigue level over time. In order to achieve these goals, sensory data were recorded for eight healthy participants. Penalized logistic and multiple linear regression models were used for physical fatigue detection and level estimation, respectively. Important features from the five sensors locations were selected using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), a popular variable selection methodology. The results show that the LASSO model performed well for both physical fatigue detection and modeling. The modeling approach is not participant and/or workload regime specific and thus can be adopted for other applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Auburn University, AL 36849, USA. Electronic address: zzs0016@auburn.edu.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sedighi Maman
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Auburn University, AL 36849, USA. Electronic address: mza0052@auburn.edu.
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Alamdar Yazdi
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University at Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. Electronic address: loracavu@bu_alo.edu.
authors.forename: Lora A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Cavuoto
authors.affiliation: Farmer School of Business, Miami University, OH 45056, USA. Electronic address: fmegahed@miamioh.edu.
authors.forename: Fadel M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Megahed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005221:Fatigue / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D066192:Manufacturing Industry; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D000076251:Wearable Electronic Devices; D014937:Work / Q000502:physiology*; D017132:Workplace; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Analytics; Feature selection; Penalized regression; Physical fatigue