Abstract
Many jobs and tasks involve hand control requiring large forces, awkward positions and/or high repetition rates which may lead to upper limb injury or illness. The operation of commercial lawn mowing machines involves a combination of these factors for actuation of hand controls and therefore may pose a safety concern for the operators. A nontraditional control system currently implemented on a commercially-available lawn mower may reduce some of the precursors for upper limb illness or injury due to hand and body positioning. This preliminary study compared maximum grip strength in nine different orientations (combinations of 3 different grip spans and 3 different positions). The results showed that there was a difference between the three different grip spans (p < 0.0001) and a difference between positions (p < 0.0001). The position of the nontraditional control system and the smallest grip span (6.3cm) facilitated the highest grip forces. Further investigation is required to better understand the impact on users of repetitive actuation in these orientations specifically while mowing.
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