Abstract

As a branch of artificial intelligence, expert systems have achieved a tremendous development in the past two decades and have gained mature implementations in many industrial fields. Ergonomics is playing an important role in the modern society. Applying the technology of expert systems in ergonomics makes it possible for people to use the expertise of ergonomic experts to finish their work correctly and efficiently without the assistance of experts. This thesis presents the design of a rule-based expert system that is used to analyze and evaluate the working conditions by ergonomic standards. CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) is the tool used to develop this expert system. The knowledge base of this expert system is acquired from OSHA's (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) ergonomic standards and Washington State's Ergonomics Rules. Our expert system has five subcomponents construct this expert system: management component, general OSHA questions component, Visual Display Terminal analysis component, Lifting calculation component and In-depth work analysis component. The management component controls the flow of the other subcomponents whereas the other subcomponents identify hazards of musculoskeletal disorders and evaluate ergonomic conditions in the workplace. The power of our expert system is shown by doing a step-by-step in-depth work analysis as an example.