Abstract

LOPEZ FISCO, Hugo Andrés; SANZ URIBE, Juan Rodrigo  and  ALVAREZ MEJIA, Fernando. BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF ARMS AND BACK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PORTABLE TOOLS. Rev. Fac. Nac. Agron. Medellín [online]. 2008, vol.61, n.2, pp.4701-4708. ISSN 0304-2847.

In semi-mechanized agricultural labors such as fertilization, pesticide application, harvesting and others, operators usually carry loads in backpacks and a tool in one of their hands. This work estimated the stresses that result in the shoulder and in the inter-vertebral disk L5-S1 of an average operator performing agricultural labors with back-mounted equipment. In order to perform the analysis it was developed a computational tool called HOMO, which considers the most common positions of the arm and the most common inclinations of the backbone when using back-mounted equipment. This analysis determined that a 12 kg load on the operator's back, combined with a 0,5 kg tool in the operator's hand, are not harmful for the studied joints.

Keywords : Biomechanics; design of portable tools; agricultural labors.

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