Abstract
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a group of painful disorders that affect muscles,
tendons, nerves, joints, cartilage, and ligaments. They are a serious problem among the
workforce in the United States. In the construction industry, high physically demanding tasks
expose construction workers to a number of well recognized MSDs risk factors such as repetitive
motion, high force exertion, and awkward body posture. Finding ways to effectively identify and
evaluate risks of MSDs can significantly alleviate this problem. To this end, this paper reviews
state of practice and research in the assessment of risks of MSDs among construction workers, in
which a number of biomechanical models have been developed to evaluate joint and tissue
loading with the aid of state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies. Findings from the review
reveal that despite the advances in tracking human motion and muscle activities, current remote
sensing approaches still involve sophisticated instrumentation and expensive experiment setup.
These factors greatly limited the applicability of such approaches in real construction settings.
How can we detect and evaluate the construction worker’s MSDs risk in real work environments?
In this paper, strategies by utilizing video surveillance systems are presented, to set the stage for
addressing the above question and discussing future research in real-time, marker-less, and cost-
effective MSDs risk assessment.
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