Ford Uses Motion Tracking Technology to Design Better Workstations for Employees

It includes body tracking technology of the kind used by athletes to improve their skills or video game developers, to render the players' movements onscreen. For the time being, the pilot is being implemented only at the Valencia Engine Assembly Plant, including 70 employees in 21 work areas, the company says in a statement.

The goal is to design better workstations that can reduce stress for employees, and ultimately, injury, and promote good posture. The ultimate goal is to implement the system in other Ford plants across Europe and enhance manufacturing quality.

Each of the employees included in the program has to wear a skin-tight suit equipped with 15 light motion tracking sensors, with the system tracking how they move at work. Focus is placed on neck, head, and shoulder and limb movement, and all movement is recorded by 4 motion-tracking cameras. A computer creates a 3D animation of the worker and tells technicians where improvement is needed to reduce stress.

“It’s been proven on the sports field that with motion tracking technology, tiny adjustments to the way you move can have a huge benefit,” Javier Gisbert, production area manager, Ford Valencia Engine Assembly Plant, says. “For our employees, changes made to work areas using similar technology can ultimately ensure that, even on a long day, they are able to work comfortably.”

Ford is also using measurements captured by the same system (height and arm length of the employee) to create workstations better suited for each worker.

Here is a video showing how motion-tracking technology is being used by the carmaker at its Valencia assembly line.