Prediction of slips: an evaluation of utilized coefficient of friction and available slip resistance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between measures of floor surface slip resistance and an individual's peak utilized coefficient of friction (COF_U) on the probability of a slip occurring during level walking. Video, kinematic and ground reaction force data were recorded simultaneously as subjects walked at a self-selected speed during conditions of normal and reduced floor surface slip resistance. Peak COF_U during weight acceptance was calculated and the available floor surface slip resistance was measured using the variable incidence tribometer (VIT). Separate logistic regression analyses identified that knowledge of the available slip resistance (as measured by the VIT) in combination with an individual's peak COF_U allowed for greater accuracy in classifying slip outcomes (89.5%; p = 0.004), while knowledge of only the available slip resistance reduced the accuracy of categorization to 78.9% (p = 0.021).     

State of science: occupational slips,trips and falls on the same level*

Occupational slips, trips and falls on the same level (STFL) result in substantial injuries worldwide. This paper summarises the state of science regarding STFL, outlining relevant aspects of epidemiology, biomechanics, psychophysics, tribology, organisational influences and injury prevention. This review reaffirms that STFL remain a major cause of workplace injury and STFL prevention is a complex problem, requiring multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted approaches. Despite progress in recent decades in understanding the mechanisms involved in STFL, especially slipping, research leading to evidence-based prevention practices remains insufficient, given the problem scale. It is concluded that there is a pressing need to develop better fall prevention strategies using systems approaches conceptualising and addressing the factors involved in STFL, with considerations of the full range of factors and their interactions. There is also an urgent need for field trials of various fall prevention strategies to assess the effectiveness of different intervention components and their interactions.

Practitioner Summary: Work-related slipping, tripping and falls on the same level are a major source of occupational injury. The causes are broadly understood, although more attention is needed from a systems perspective. Research has shown preventative action to be effective, but further studies are required to understand which aspects are most beneficial.     

Subjective assessment of floor slipperiness

Measured coefficients of friction of floor surfaces have not been shown to be consistent predictors of slipping and falling. However, human subjects appear to be able to perceive the slipperiness of a floor surface, and to modify their gait to mitigate the effects of slippery surfaces. This study investigated subjective rankings of floor surfaces (ceramic, steel, vinyl, plywood, and sandpaper) and the measured coefficients of friction. In addition, subjects reported a confidence rating on the occurence of a slip at “heel down”. The floor surfaces were selected a priori, to provide a range of slipperiness and subjects appeared to be able to reliably discriminate between those surfaces. Ceramic tile was the most frequently determined as the slippery floor with the high level of confidence ratings, CERTAIN and ALMOST CERTAIN. In other words, the confidence ratings were closely related to the subjective rankings. The higher the subjective rankings were, the higher the confidence ratings were. To prove subjective rankings by the quantitative measure, static coefficients of friction were measured and it appears that subjects were able to relate their sensations to a function of the static coefficient of friction.     

The effect of shoe soling tread groove width on the coefficient of friction with different sole materials, floors, and contaminants

Tread groove design is very common in footwear. However, coefficient of friction (COF) measurements between the footwear material and floor using a slipmeter were commonly performed using flat footwear pads. Such measurements might underestimate the actual slip resistance of the footwear pad. This research investigates the effects of the tread groove width on the measured COF using four footwear materials, three floors, and four liquid-contamination conditions using a Brungraber Mark II slipmeter. The analysis of variance results indicated that the footwear material, floor, contamination conditions, and groove width were all significant (p<0.0001) factors affecting the measured COF. The hypothesis that wider tread grooves result in higher COF values was true with some exceptions especially on oil contaminated floors. A regression model, with an R² of 0.91, was established to describe and predict the relationship between the COF and the tread groove width under footwear material/floor/contamination conditions.     

The effect of shoe sole tread groove depth on the friction coefficient with different tread groove widths, floors and contaminants

Slipping and falling are common phenomena in both workplaces and our daily activities. The risks associated with slipping and falling are related to the materials of footwear/floor, contamination condition, and geometric design of the sole. Shoe soles of various tread design are very common. Tread pattern of the shoe affects friction especially under liquid-contaminated conditions. Verification of the effects of tread groove depth is significant in assisting designers in designing proper footwear for workers exposed to slippery floor conditions. In this study, we measured the friction coefficients using the Neolite footwear pads on the terrazzo, steel, and vinyl floors under three liquid-contaminated conditions. A Brungraber Mark II slipmeter was used. The footwear pads had tread grooves with a width of either 3 or 9 mm. The depth of the tread grooves ranged from 1 to 5 mm. The results showed that tread groove depth affected the friction coefficients significantly. Higher friction values were recorded for footwear pads with deeper tread grooves on wet and water–detergent-contaminated floors. The averaged coefficient of friction (COF) gain per tread groove depth increase in millimeter under these two surface conditions ranged from 0.018 to 0.108, depending on the tread groove width, floor, and contaminant.     

Compensation for dead band of force measurement based on the coefficient of restitution in a hybrid simulator

In order to develop space robotic technologies, the feasibility and reliability of the systems have to be verified by repetitive operation tests. A hybrid simulator (also referred to as a Hardware-in-the-loop simulator) is one of the effective ways to examine orbital operations on the ground. The simulator embeds a hardware experiment in a numerical simulation loop. However, it is known that the hybrid simulator has a serious problem that energy increase arises in contact with a hardware experiment in the loop. In general, the energy increase in the hybrid simulator occurs due to the dead time in the system. However, this paper presents that dead band in force/torque measuring also causes the energy increase. The dead band in the force/torque measuring is necessary to avoid unexpected motion of the hybrid simulator due to the noise data in the force/torque sensor. This paper proposes two compensation methods for the energy increase problem due to the dead band. The first method is to insert a virtual damper to absorb the increased energy during the contact. The second method is to extrapolate force/torque data that is lost through the dead band processing right after the contact. The experimental verification with uniaxial contact in hybrid simulator is carried out to validate the proposed compensation methods.     

A note on a new method based on the dispersion of weights in data envelopment analysis

In a very recent paper by Bal et al. (Bal, H., Örkcü, H. H., & Çelebioğlu, S. (2008). A new method based on the dispersion of weights in data envelopment analysis. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 54(3), 502–512), a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model which incorporates the coefficients of variations (CVs) of input–output weights was proposed to improve the discrimination power of DEA and balance input–output weights. This note points out that the input and output weights in DEA are of different dimensions and units. The weights with different dimensions and units cannot be simply added together and averaged. In other words, the DEA model with the inclusion of CVs of input–output weights, which was referred to as CVDEA model for short, makes no sense if input and output data are not normalized to eliminate their dimensions and units. This note also illustrates the facts that the CVDEA model can cause significant efficiency changes when a scale transformation is performed for an input or output and may produce multiple local optimal solutions due to its nonlinearity, leading to totally different assessment conclusions. These facts reveal that the CVDEA model suffers from serious drawbacks and its applications for efficiency assessment should be very cautious.     

基于WMI和AD服务实现WINDOWS环境下企业级的资源监控和动态管理

该文阐述了如何利用WMI和AD(活动目录)来实现资源的监控和动态管理,并且给出了相应的研究设计和实现方法。