Analyzing Mowing Behaviors on Sloping Land via Motion Capture Device

As the aging and depopulation in Japan’s rural areas continues to increase, many manual lawn mowing jobs have been handed to senior citizens. However, mowing with an incorrect posture may unduly burden the body, and even lead to a fall or slip. In this paper, we focus on the motions involved in lawn mowing, design and execute a set of experiments to collect data on the worker’s body while mowing on a slope by using a motion capture device, and use regression analysis to identify the relationship between the angles of the subject’s joints and the angle of the slope/inclined plane. The results of an analysis of 9,600 items of motion-related data show that all the angles considered, excluding angles of the subject’s right elbow and right wrist, were related to the angle of the inclined plane. The findings of the work here can provide guidelines for preventing accidents in the design of mowing assistance systems and offers useful insights for training workers for mowing.