Analysing Body Motions Using Motion Capture Data

Analysing manual work is an important task in industrial companies with high labour costs and labour intensive work processes. Industrial Engineer s can use the results of these analyses to identify potentials and improve productivity to maintain and improve competitiveness. To obtain goal-oriented results the processes need to be analysed in detail. One method that yields detailed information is the MTM-1-method. However, it requires a lot of effort and special knowledge. This presents a big hurdle, especially for companies with small production quantity. One option to reduce the effort and the required knowledge is using motion capture technology. This technology is capable to record human motions and to translate them into data that can be processed digitally. Known representatives are 3D cameras and motion capture suits. They track positions and postures of the human body, thus allowing conclusions about human movements. This paper presents an approach to detect body motions in accordance to MTM-1 using motion capture data from 3D cameras. The detected motions are then analysed with respect to productivity to show improvement potential.