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Usability Evaluation of Exoskeleton Systems in Automotive Industry
Published in Marcelo M. Soares, Francisco Rebelo, Tareq Z. Ahram, Handbook of Usability and User Experience, 2022
Maria Victoria Cabrera Aguilera, Bernardo Bastos da Fonseca, Marcello Silva e Santos, Nelson Tavares Matias, Nilo Antonio de Souza Sampaio
The exoskeleton is an external mechanical structure that can be worn and is designed to function in harmony with a human being to provide support or enhance their ability. There are two types of exoskeletons: it can be passive when it provides support or protection or active by providing additional power (Karvouniari et al., 2018).
Health and safety in smart industry: State-of-the-art and future trends
Published in Paulo Jorge da Silva Bartolo, Fernando Moreira da Silva, Shaden Jaradat, Helena Bartolo, Industry 4.0 – Shaping The Future of The Digital World, 2020
O.J. Bakker, T. Kendall, P. Bartolo
Exoskeletons are applied in the medical field for the rehabilitation of patients affected by muscle deceases or muscle shrinkage due to not being able to use muscles in certain body parts due long-term forced rest. In industry, exoskeletons can be utilized to prevent musculoskeletal disorder, reduce fatigue and assist people lifting heavier loads.
Personal care robots
Published in Eduard Fosch-Villaronga, Robots, Healthcare, and the Law, 2019
According to the study of Rupal et al. (2017), exoskeletons should be comfortable, easy to use, and effective at providing support to the user. That is why every user interface should be designed in a way that translates the assistive forces from the device to the limbs in perfect harmony with the user’s intention of movement.
Influence of a passive back support exoskeleton on simulated patient bed bathing: results of an exploratory study
Published in Ergonomics, 2023
Pauline Maurice, Félix Cuny-Enault, Serena Ivaldi
Exoskeletons are wearable devices that provide physical assistance to their users through assistive torques and/or structural support. Occupational exoskeletons have recently received great interest from the industry, owing to their potential to reduce physical workload (de Looze et al. 2016) and risks of developing WMSDs (Theurel and Desbrosses 2019). Passive (i.e. non-motorized) systems are currently the most common commercial exoskeletons (Voilqué et al. 2019). While they cannot generate high force and are therefore mainly dedicated to postural support (e.g. back support during trunk forward flexion, arm support during overhead work), passive exoskeletons have several advantages over active ones: they are lighter, cheaper, less cumbersome, they pose no autonomy issue and present less safety risks for the user (Toxiri et al. 2019). They might therefore be easier to deploy in real world settings, especially in constrained environments such as hospitals.
Kinematic and kinetic functional requirements for industrial exoskeletons for lifting tasks and overhead lifting
Published in Ergonomics, 2020
Kirsten Huysamen, Valerie Power, Leonard O’Sullivan
To date exoskeletons have mainly been developed for medical/rehabilitation purposes where devices have been designed to support and assist physically weak, injured or disabled people with activities of daily living, and to perform prescribed rehabilitation exercises (Viteckova, Kutilek, and Jirina 2013; de Looze et al. 2016). Some exoskeletons have been designed to enhance soldiers’ muscular strength in the military (Anam and Al-Jumaily 2012; Yan et al. 2015). Regarding industrial exoskeletons, research is mainly at an experimental level, but some have entered the market (de Looze et al. 2016). The benefits of exoskeletons in reducing physical load on humans has been proven (Huysamen, Bosch, et al. 2018; Huysamen, de Looze, et al. 2018), however, researchers and developers have encountered significant design and technical challenges, and only once resolved can these devices be made commercially available for large-scale implementation in workplaces.
Potential of Exoskeleton Technologies to Enhance Safety, Health, and Performance in Construction: Industry Perspectives and Future Research Directions
Published in IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors, 2019
Sunwook Kim, Albert Moore, Divya Srinivasan, Abiola Akanmu, Alan Barr, Carisa Harris-Adamson, David M. Rempel, Maury A. Nussbaum
An exoskeleton is a wearable device that augments, enables, assists, and/or enhances physical activity (working draft terminology of ASTM F48.91 Terminology Sub-Committee). Exoskeletons are rapidly emerging as commercial products and present potential opportunities for preventing WMSDs by reducing physical demands and fatigue (de Looze, Bosch, Krause, Stadler, & O Sullivan, 2016; Kazerooni, 2008). Existing studies have demonstrated the efficacy of passive (i.e., without powered actuators) arm- or back-support exoskeletons during simulated occupational tasks (e.g., Abdoli-E, Agnew, & Stevenson, 2006; Bosch, van Eck, Knitel, & de Looze, 2016; Kim, et al., 2018a; Rashedi, Kim, Nussbaum, & Agnew, 2014; Spada, Ghibaudo, Gilotta, Gastaldi, & Cavatorta, 2017), and found reduced muscle activity, increased endurance time, and/or improved work performance. However, concerns have also been identified. For example, beneficial effects may be inconsistent between specific tasks or exoskeleton designs (Alabdulkarim, 2017; Kim et al., 2018b; Rashedi et al., 2014; Weston, Alizadeh, Knapik, Wang, & Marras, 2018). Exoskeleton use may also lead to the adoption of potentially riskier working postures to exploit the device support, such as favoring a more stooped lifting style (Frost, Abdoli-E, & Stevenson, 2009) or extended knee postures (Bosch et al., 2016).