17 research outputs found
Not Available
Not AvailablePedal operated paddy threshers are widely used in the rice growing countries such as India, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Korea and some African countries. Thresher-drive linkage plays a vital role in human-machine interaction and workload on
the human operator. The four-bar linkage design used in pedal operated paddy thresher was replaced with four alternative
designs of thresher drive-linkages to assess the load application pattern and physiological work load while operating the pedal
operated paddy thresher. The machine was tested with five operators for physiological workload estimation. The linkage
combinations were found to have significant effects at 1% level on the work pulse rate and workload to operators.
Considering the force-displacement relationships and physiological workload on the operators, linkage three was found to be
the most promising design with lowest work pulse rate of 45.90 beats min-1 and change in energy expenditure rate of 214.5 W
(12.87 kJ min-1).Not Availabl
Not Available
Not AvailableA worker has to exert force using both hand and leg to operate farm tools and equipment. Sometimes
torque is also applied, such as when operating steering. The capabilities of the operators have considerable
effects on design features and control of farm machinery. However, very little data are available on
capabilities of different population segments of Indian agricultural workers. Therefore, a study was
carried out to collect these data on male and female agricultural workers of Meghalaya belonging to the
Khasi, Jaintia and Garo tribal communities with Mongolian origins. Data were collected on 100 subjects
from different parts of Meghalaya state in the north eastern hill region of India of which 52 were male
subjects and 48 were female subjects. The 5th and 95th percentile values of different strength parameters
were estimated, which needs to be taken in to consideration while designing the various machinery
controls. Mean leg strength (right) and foot strength (right) of female agricultural workers
(334.1 44.1 N and 199.4 29.4 N) was found to be significantly lower (p < 0.01) than their male
counterparts (525.6 40.2 N and 342.9 49.1 N). Similarly, leg and foot strength of female workers in
the preferred leg was found to be 63.6 and 58.1% that of male workers. Steering strength is an important
design criterion on the basis of which the steering systems of tractors and other self propelled devices
are designed, and the mean steering torque was found to be 65.3 8.0 and 49.2 10.7 N m for male and
female agricultural workers, respectively. The steering force capability of female agricultural workers was
observed to be 75.3% that of male agricultural workers.
Relevance to industry: The strength values and design criteria presented in this paper may be used for
setting limits for design of manually operated tools and equipment involving push/pull activities, leg
strength, torque limits in agriculture as well as in other industrial jobs.AICRP on Ergonomics and Safety in Agricultur