Virtual reality: its usefulness for ergonomic analysis

This paper presents the results of an effort to compare results of an experiment performed in both a virtual and a real environment. The research question addressed is if virtual reality is a suitable tool for performing ergonomic analysis. The subjects performed a palletizing task in the virtual environment and then performed the same task in the real environment. The results showed that VR can be compared to a similar experimental task in the real environment if it involves measuring only range of movements and no velocities or accelerations. This paper presents these results using a lumbar motion monitor and proposes areas for future improvement and research.