Reverse Engineering approach for a joystick handgrip re-styling with ergonomic features

Ergonomics plays a more and more important role in product development, ensuring a better quality of life and work and also contributing to enrich the product image. If the importance of an ergonomic design is commonly recognized, no stated procedures for the development of an ergonomic product are still available. This is probably due to the fact that ergonomics is a qualitative subjective characteristic, that can’t be reduced to a list ofspecifications. In agreement with the opinion that a product can be defined ergonomic only in reference to a precise target of users and for a definite application [1], this paper regards aninnovative user-based procedure for the re-styling of a commercial handgrip. The proposed procedure, combining traditional modeling and Time Compression techniques, guarantees the time- and cost-saving development of a product ensuring comfort of use and minimizing pressure concentrations on the user’s hand [2] that can be defined ergonomic since it directly derives from users’ physical characteristics.