A Customized System for Whole-Body Vibration Measurement

Details

• Journal Article:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• Personal Author:
  Fiegel, Brian ; Dhabi, Yash K. ; Thomas, Geb ; Rahmatalla, Salam ; Ritchie, Elizabeth M. ; Ramker, Adam ; Stroh, Oliver ; Wilder, David G. ; Fethke, Nathan B.
• Description:
  This manuscript describes the technical components and performance of a custom whole-body vibration (WBV) instrumentation system designed for autonomous, prolonged field measurement. The study demonstrated the technical readiness of the system's accelerometers. The system integrates a Teensy 4.1 microcontroller, triaxial microelectromechanical system accelerometers, force sensing resistors, global positioning system module, and microSD data storage. The accelerometers were validated against reference accelerometers commonly used in field-based WBV measurement using a motion simulator programmed with complex vibration input profiles specified in ISO 7096:2020 Earth-Moving Machinery-Laboratory Evaluation of Operator Seat Vibration for testing operator seat vibration in earth moving machinery. In the time domain, accelerometers in the custom WBV instrumentation system exhibited ≤ 2.21% error in root-mean-square (RMS) amplitude measurements and < 0.03 g sample-to-sample RMS deviation from the reference accelerometers. Frequency-domain analysis (1/3-octave band) suggested slight underestimation of signal power at low frequencies (≤10 Hz), but the differences were practically small at each 1/3-octave band. Ultimately, the system will enable WBV monitoring in settings in which operators are remote and/or the schedule of machine operation is variable (e.g., agriculture). Future work will focus on real-world validation and exploring use of the force sensing resistors to characterize operator posture, further enhancing the system's utility in occupational WBV exposure monitoring. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
  • Vibration
• Keywords:
  • Whole body vibration
  • Measurement equipment
  • Monitoring systems
  • Exposure assessment
  • Analytical instrumentation
  • Author Keywords: Exposure assessment
  • lowcost instrumentation
  • validation
  • whole-body vibration
• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; Kansas City Region OSHA
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  12 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20071710
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2026 May; :Epub ahead of print
• Contact Point Address:
  Nathan B. Fethke, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
• Email:
  nathan-fethke@uiowa.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2026
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  2001/09/30
• End Date:
  2027/09/29
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/259936/cdc_259936_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.01 MB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:62eaa680b04fddc087e64757fb24e6a26414f9f49266ec5c71799e6f4f8de0d5cc8c7672344afb5c195575c2091f14eb1ae12791e09b11ac95e9de222de9ea84