The Industrial Athlete: Ergonomic Problem Space Mapping in Industrial Insulation
Sep 2025 – Nov 2025 · done
field ergonomics, OWAS, visual ethnography, LaTeX
MSc internship at Bilfinger on the Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk site: a field study on the robotization of industrial insulation work — posture and task-load data from on-site observation, distilled into design parameters for assistive robotic tools. The dataset and problem definition carried forward into the MSc thesis.
What it is
An R&D engineering internship at Bilfinger, stationed at Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk, closing with the report The Industrial Athlete: Ergonomic Problem Space Mapping in Industrial Insulation (MSc Mechanical Engineering — Biomechanical Design, TU Delft, 26 November 2025).
The study mapped why industrial insulation work is ergonomically brutal and what an assistive tool would actually have to solve. Consumer-grade sensor approaches (IMUs) hit the site’s ATEX regulatory barrier, so the method pivoted to a participatory “Shadow-and-Help” field protocol: working alongside insulators, indirect elicitation interviews, visual ethnography, and OWAS posture coding — mapping the discrepancy between theoretical work planning and on-site execution (the “Lego fallacy vs. the craft reality”).
Results (all numbers live here, verbatim)
- From the CV: “Field study on robotization of industrial work: collected measurements, e.g. posture and task-load data during on-site observations to establish design parameters for assistive robotic tools targeting chronic posture correction. Dataset and problem definition carried forward into MSc thesis (Body Haptics group, TU Delft).”
- Internship period: September 2025 – November 2025; report dated 26 November 2025.