Making Fatigue Visible: Myontec Smart Clothing in JCB’s DualDrive Testing
When JCB set out to demonstrate the ergonomic benefits of its DualDrive technology, the company wanted more than subjective feedback or motion analysis. It wanted objective data showing what was happening to the operator’s body during real machine operation.
For what JCB describes as the world’s first Backhoe Loader operator fatigue test comparing DualDrive with non-DualDrive operation, wearable electromyography (EMG) provided that insight.
Using Myontec smart clothing, muscle activity could be monitored continuously while operators performed a demanding one-hour trenching test.
The headline result was significant: the DualDrive machine reduced total operator muscle load by 31% compared with the conventional non-DualDrive machine.
The challenge at JCB: measuring what the operator actually experiences
Operating a conventional Backhoe Loader involves more than digging. Operators repeatedly switch between excavating and repositioning the machine. That means rotating the seat between the rear-facing excavator position and forward-facing driving position -again and again throughout the working day.
JCB estimates that DualDrive can eliminate up to 1,200 seat rotations per week. Its DualDrive system allows the operator to reposition the machine using controls integrated into the rear excavator joysticks, reducing the need to continually turn around inside the cab.
JCB designed this to improve comfort, reduce fatigue and make operation more productive. The challenge was demonstrating the physical effect on the operator.
That is where Myontec entered the test.
Measuring muscle activity with Myontec
Myontec smart clothing integrates textile EMG sensors directly into wearable garments, enabling muscle activity to be monitored while a person performs real-world tasks. Instead of restricting testing to a laboratory, wearable EMG allows researchers and engineers to investigate muscular workload in the environment where the work actually happens. In operator testing, this creates an opportunity to objectively compare how different machine configurations or working techniques influence the body.
During JCB's comparison, operators wore Myontec technology while performing the trenching task. Muscle activity was monitored across areas particularly relevant to repetitive machine operation, including the lower back and core, neck and upper back, and lower extremities.
Instead of simply observing how often the operator moved, EMG provided another layer of information: how much muscular work those movements required.
31% lower total muscle load
The measurements demonstrated a clear difference between the two operating configurations.
JCB reported a 31% reduction in total muscle load when operating the DualDrive machine compared with the non-DualDrive machine.
This finding gives physical meaning to the ergonomic benefits of removing repetitive seat rotation. The potential implications extend beyond comfort. Reducing unnecessary muscular loading and repetitive movement can be important when designing equipment intended to be operated for long periods.
JCB also reports that DualDrive can deliver a 10% productivity improvement, connecting operator-focused design with machine productivity.
From subjective fatigue to objective evidence
This project illustrates an important opportunity for wearable EMG in occupational ergonomics.
Questions such as “Is this machine easier to operate?” or “Does this workstation reduce physical strain?” have traditionally depended heavily on observation, operator feedback or motion analysis based on motion sensors or video.
Those methods remain valuable, but they are not telling anything about the internal load. Myontec wearable muscle data adds an objective physiological dimension.
With Myontec, engineers and ergonomics specialists can compare muscle activation between equipment configurations, quantify muscular workload during specific tasks, identify demanding movement patterns, and evaluate whether a design change actually reduces or just change the physical demands. Most importantly, those measurements can take place in the real working environment rather than only in a laboratory.
Making the invisible visible
At Myontec, we believe better human-performance decisions begin with better data.
Muscular load is largely invisible. Two tasks may look almost identical from the outside while placing very different demands on the person performing them.
Wearable EMG makes those differences measurable.
The JCB DualDrive fatigue test demonstrates how this technology can move beyond sports performance and rehabilitation into industrial ergonomics, occupational health and human-centred product development. Measuring accurate internal load instead of external load based on movement analysis.
For manufacturers, the opportunity is powerful: don't just design a machine and assume it is more ergonomic. Measure how the human body responds and use that information to improve the design.
JCB's test provides a compelling example. By combining innovative machine engineering with real-time muscle measurement, a major ergonomic improvement could be translated into a simple, meaningful result:
31% less total muscle load.
That's the kind of data that can help build machines and workplaces around the people who use them.
Know your muscles. Design better work.
About JCB.
J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd., universally known as JCB, is an English multinational corporation that ranks as one of the world's largest manufacturers of construction, agriculture, and waste handling equipment.Founded in 1945 by Joseph Cyril Bamford, the company is headquartered in Rocester, Staffordshire, England. The brand is so deeply integrated into British culture that the word "JCB" is colloquially used in the UK as a generic term for any digger or excavator. See more at www.jcb.com.
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