ABSTRACT
The present chapter is divided in two parts. The first part introduces the field of ergonomics with its basic aims and objectives and, as such, serves as an introduction to this section of the book where motor co-ordination is discussed within the context of ergonomics. Ergonomics deals with optimising the interactions of humans with artefacts in purposeful actions. On the one hand, ergonomics can be of importance for motor development, when considering the design of artefacts that children interact with during play or activities of daily living. On the other hand, an ergonomic view on motor development (i.e. focusing on interactions with objects, in contrast, for example, to locomotion) can reveal aspects of motor development that otherwise will not be noted. To illustrate this, the development of the co-ordination of lifting will be reviewed. Lifting is probably the most studied motor task in the ergonomics literature. Lifting requires tuning muscle forces produced to the inertial properties of the object to be handled. These properties are, however, unknown to the subject before the object has actually been lifted. Therefore, the control of lifting tasks relies on estimates of these inertial properties based on, for instance, visual information. This example gives some insight into how the use of, especially, visual information in the anticipatory control of movement develops. Such knowledge might in the future be useful for optimising the design of, for instance, tools and toys.
