Advances in Ergonomics, Human Factors and Safety for Occupational Health

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, society and organizations have experienced numerous transformations caused by scientific and technological advancements and by the growing concern with worldwide sustainability. Emerging concepts and technologies, such as human–robot collaboration (HRC), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), cyber-physical systems (CPSs), the Internet of Things (IoT) and nanotechnology, will constitute the future working systems. These provide more efficient, more flexible, and higher-quality products, but they also require the reorganization of work, with a potential negative impact on workers’ health and safety.

In parallel, the aging and eventual physical and cognitive limitations of workers may cause occupational health problems (e.g., work-related musculoskeletal disorders), for which conventional workplaces and technologies are not always adequate. Therefore, it is crucial to create customizable human-centric workplaces tailoring to workers’ characteristics and their possible health limitations.

These issues emphasize the need for technology to be advanced, together with human involvement and empowerment. In the future, successful working systems will only be possible if the socio-technical systems are properly aligned with human factors.

Safety and human well-being are the main challenges in this context, and in-depth research is still required, mainly in occupational environments, to test and validate the implementation of these novel technologies. 

This Special Issue aims to address possible occupational health problems and occupational risk using techniques developed in the fields of human–machine interaction, ergonomics and health. 

Dr. Paula Machado De Sousa Carneiro
Dr. Ana Sofia de Pinho Colim
Guest Editors

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• biomechanics
• human factors and ergonomics
• human–machine interaction
• aging workforce
• exoskeletons
• collaborative robotics
• virtual/augmented reality
• risk assessment
• risk perception
• occupational safety and health