Design, Human Factors and Neuroergonomics for safety in manufacturing

Occupational safety research has been directed toward defining the areas of most significant concern in identifying specific areas of psychosocial risk. Modern workplaces need to address the complex relationship between work, technology, health, and well-being. The Operator 4.0 must retain a high level of attention, reactivity, and accuracy while interacting physically with machines and robots that do intellectual activities. Proper design of work activities and workstations must consider the cognitive load and anthropometry of the worker by involving the worker in the risk assessment to improve occupational safety through neuro-ergonomics approaches and measuring neural signatures of performance with various neuroimaging techniques, including functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalogram (EEG). Based on international standards and literature research on the main databases, the analysis and characterization of interaction performance parameters is carried out by bringing together the principles of neuroergonomics, User Centred Design and New Human Factors including performance shaping factors (PSF). Specifically, the research work compares a collection of studies focusing on technologies for sensing brain parameters through neuroimaging in a laboratory setting to provide the tools to structure a reliable, adaptable, and easily replicable testing protocol through a multidisciplinary approach. It’s necessary to develop guidelines for the neuro-ergonomic design of human-machine-robot interaction in Industry 4.0 environments to improve operator safety and health by defining good practices.