From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons
Assessment of occupational exoskeletons should ideally include longitudinal and multistage studies in real working scenarios to prove their effectiveness and sustainability in real in-field contexts and to help generalize the findings for specific scenarios. This work presents a comprehensive assess...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Wearable Technologies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2631717624000288/type/journal_article |
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| author | Christian Di Natali Tommaso Poliero Matteo Sposito Vasco Fanti Sergio Leggieri Darwin G. Caldwell |
| author_facet | Christian Di Natali Tommaso Poliero Matteo Sposito Vasco Fanti Sergio Leggieri Darwin G. Caldwell |
| author_sort | Christian Di Natali |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Assessment of occupational exoskeletons should ideally include longitudinal and multistage studies in real working scenarios to prove their effectiveness and sustainability in real in-field contexts and to help generalize the findings for specific scenarios. This work presents a comprehensive assessment methodology implemented as a multistage experimental campaign for rail industry workers using a back-support exoskeleton (StreamEXO). This work demonstrates that a sector/task-specific exoskeleton developed to address work task-specific requirements generates beneficial performance and user experience results. The experimental work in this paper involves collecting data from nine workers over multiple days of testing. During this testing, workers did not report hindrances to their work operations, with an acceptance rate of 86%. In addition, worker fatigue was reduced by 16.9% as measured through metabolic consumption, and 51% when assessed by perceived effort. This work supports the hypothesis that sector/task-specific exoskeletons when tailored to meet the needs of workers and the work tasks can produce demonstrable benefits in real industrial sectors. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-40b4ebb0ffb34db684151bd7b3eb7eec |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2631-7176 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Wearable Technologies |
| spelling | doaj-art-40b4ebb0ffb34db684151bd7b3eb7eec2025-01-30T07:58:46ZengCambridge University PressWearable Technologies2631-71762025-01-01610.1017/wtc.2024.28From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletonsChristian Di Natali0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7399-7399Tommaso Poliero1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3901-8983Matteo Sposito2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7442-1399Vasco Fanti3Sergio Leggieri4Darwin G. Caldwell5Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, XoLab, Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, XoLab, Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, XoLab, Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, XoLab, Genoa, Italy Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering (DIBRIS), Universita’ degli Studi di Genova (UniGe), Genova, ItalyDepartment of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, XoLab, Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, XoLab, Genoa, ItalyAssessment of occupational exoskeletons should ideally include longitudinal and multistage studies in real working scenarios to prove their effectiveness and sustainability in real in-field contexts and to help generalize the findings for specific scenarios. This work presents a comprehensive assessment methodology implemented as a multistage experimental campaign for rail industry workers using a back-support exoskeleton (StreamEXO). This work demonstrates that a sector/task-specific exoskeleton developed to address work task-specific requirements generates beneficial performance and user experience results. The experimental work in this paper involves collecting data from nine workers over multiple days of testing. During this testing, workers did not report hindrances to their work operations, with an acceptance rate of 86%. In addition, worker fatigue was reduced by 16.9% as measured through metabolic consumption, and 51% when assessed by perceived effort. This work supports the hypothesis that sector/task-specific exoskeletons when tailored to meet the needs of workers and the work tasks can produce demonstrable benefits in real industrial sectors.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2631717624000288/type/journal_articleindustrial exoskeletonon-site assessmentwearable roboticsfatigue reductionacceptanceexperimental protocol |
| spellingShingle | Christian Di Natali Tommaso Poliero Matteo Sposito Vasco Fanti Sergio Leggieri Darwin G. Caldwell From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons Wearable Technologies industrial exoskeleton on-site assessment wearable robotics fatigue reduction acceptance experimental protocol |
| title | From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons |
| title_full | From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons |
| title_fullStr | From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons |
| title_full_unstemmed | From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons |
| title_short | From the idea to the user: a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons |
| title_sort | from the idea to the user a pragmatic multifaceted approach to testing occupational exoskeletons |
| topic | industrial exoskeleton on-site assessment wearable robotics fatigue reduction acceptance experimental protocol |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2631717624000288/type/journal_article |
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