Abstract:

Human beings exist with mental and physical abilities in the work environment and they continue to work by using these abilities within their limitations. The definitions, limitations, and use of these capabilities change according to the characteristics of the time. In work environments, with the help of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), robots and artificial intelligence will respectively replace physical and mental workloads. In these work environments, this replacement can highlight new applications in the domain of human factors/ergonomics. Increasing automation with Industry 4.0 makes ergonomic improvements in physically difficult jobs that can reduce the possible health problems of workers. At the end, the ability of workers to perform physically difficult jobs can be evaluated in high-value-added manufacturing and workplace health and safety standards can be enhanced. On the other hand, workers’ mental workloads will be increased exponentially with increasing automation, which may result in inadequate human-machine interactions. In Industry 4.0 applications, neuroergonomics, the application of neuroscience to ergonomics, can convert possible threats into opportunities by performing mental workload analysis in the correct way. In this study, we aimed to assess the possible threats and opportunities of Industry 4.0 applications in the domain of ergonomics. We also highlighted the importance of neuroergonomics applications in converting those possible threats into opportunities.

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