Rapid Upper-Limb Assessment (RULA)

Developed by: Osmond Ergonomics

Description: RULA is an assessment designed to quickly identify risky hand, arm, and shoulder postures in a workplace task. It takes user-inputted data about what a worker’s arm is doing and calculates a numerical relative risk for MSDs. The evaluation also considers general body posture, hand loads, and the duration/frequency of the task. A larger number indicates higher risk, and RULA tends to be more sensitive at detecting potential MSD risks than other assessment tools (it will generally identify many hazards. 

This resource is an eight-page, non-fillable pdf intended for print or tablet-annotation use. Scoring information is provided using a flow chart on the 6th page, a lookup table on the 7th page, and a general interpretation on the 8th page of the pdf.

Keywords: RULA, Upper Limb, Arm, Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist, Hand, Assessment, Posture, Form, Worksheet