NIOSH Mining Facility

Testing physical requirements and intervention alternatives for roof screening tasks

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Due to the dynamic nature of the mining environment, an actual operating mine is not suitable for most worker task studies. The Human Performance Research Mine allows researchers to study task specific risk factors and ergonomic intervention possibilities in a simulated underground mine setting with actual mining equipment. Studying these tasks and interventions before introducing them to the field helps to ensure useable and effective designs. Each study can be performed with varying seam heights and entry widths. The simulated mine accommodates portable EMG and Motion Analysis systems, making possible detailed research on the physical requirements of mining tasks and the capabilities of mine workers. The research mine is also available to support studies in other NIOSH focus areas.

Site:  Pittsburgh Research Laboratory