ABSTRACT
This paper describes a menu-driven ergonomic expert system, SONEX, that is based on knowledge of work-related musculoskeletal risk factors and expert opinion. The software is easy to use, by experts and layman. Risk factors are divided into two main knowledge bases and four additional bases, and each of them is a separate expert system. The SONEX system has a large and diverse base of around 150 questions and knowledge base that contains over 230 factors, and around 500 possible answers. The SONEX system has been field validated by analyzing different jobs using traditional ergonomic methods and then comparing the outcomes with a SONEX analysis of the same jobs.
