Abstract: Protective clothing can not only protect workers from environmental threats, but also bring some side effects, such as motion-opposing. Ergonomic function evaluation is a significant part of performance assessments for protective clothing. By reviewing the domestic and foreign research status of ergonomic test and evaluation for protective clothing, this paper made a definition for the assessment of ergonomic performance of protective clothing. Based on this, the range of motion and mobility of performance were discussed as parts of the evaluation content. This paper also explored ergonomic test and evaluation methods of protective clothing from subjective investigation, objective testing and numerical simulation. It was proposed to establish an evaluation system for the ergonomics of protective clothing, and study the ergonomic assessment of protective clothing in the virtual reality simulation system.

Key words: protective clothing, ergonomic performance, evaluation, range of motion, flexibility of operation