Deadline extended: 

31 October 2022

Submissions deadline: 30 June 2022

Wearable Technologies Special Issue on "Human Factors & Ergonomics for Occupational Exoskeletons"

-Prof Tomas Sugar (Arizona State University, USA)

-Prof Nicola Vitiello & Dr Simona Crea (Scuola Superiore Santa Anna, Italy)

-Dr Elliott Rouse (University of Michigan, USA)

-Prof Dr Philipp Beckerle (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany).

-Prof Dr Robert Weidner (Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria)

-Dr Sascha Wischniewski (Head of Unit for Human Factors, Ergonomics of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health BAUA, Germany)

-Dr Michele Xiloyannis (ETH, Zurich)

-Prof Dr Lorenzo Masia (Heidelberg University, Germany)

 

Synopsis

Wearable exoskeletons in industry and assistive technology are getting a lot of attention lately. Exoskeletal devices have already shown great promise and relatively strong success as rehabilitation and disability solutions, and at first glance, they seem to be a viable silk road in solving workplace ergonomics issues. The appeal is obvious, but do exoskeletons provide an effective workplace ergonomics improvement?

As with any technologic innovation some of the pros and cons and barriers to adoption are not completely understood.  

Although the aforementioned growing interest of industry in the field of wearable robotics, several barriers to adoption still need to be overcome to achieve widespread implementation of this technology. As highlighted in recent publications, such a scepticism is related to the lack of prospective, interventional onsite studies necessary evaluating and generalizing on large scale the physiological effects and user acceptance of long-term use of exoskeletons across various industry sectors.

Leading companies are beginning to categorize some as a form of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) if used for risk reduction and all other measures would not lead to success. PPE also brings a host of regulatory requirements into play, which need to be observed when used in the workplace.

 

Furthermore, designing exoskeletons to be person specific, matching a wide range of anthropometrics and task versatility, is yet an open challenge. Subject specificity is extremely important when it comes to wearable technology, above all considering that a poorly fitted device substantially increase injury risk.

Designing exoskeletons is very challenging because it is difficult to anticipate how such devices will influence the wearer´s physiological and psychological factors (i.e. motion and muscular activation) as well as user experience. Although biomechanical simulations can be used for movements and muscle force predictions, it is a challenge to build musculoskeletal models able to provide acceptable outcomes taking into account the high variability in anthropometrics: in-vivo measurements of strength and flexibility across the joints of the legs, back, shoulders and arms is sparse.

 

Within the scope of the Special Issue we look for contributions aiming at addressing such challenges via an informed design by improving the methods used to design exoskeletons and tailoring their assistance, the materials used to build them, and the process to evaluate and modify their architectures.

We will keep in high consideration the following points and considering worth of publication those contributions which will tackle the aforementioned limitation by proposing:

• How to improve the outcomes of biomechanical simulations to enhance the accuracy of the in-vivo flexibility and strengthen data that exists in the literature, to obtain better models, and ultimately more reliable movements/task predictions.
• How to make exoskeletons that reduce the risk of injury and develop novel approaches for delivering assistance which are based on soft and adaptive support electromechanically actuated and smart materials that encourage safe postures, monitor workload and provide support to those joints which are currently not assisted.
• Validated experimental On-site testing, which provide generalization of the physiological effects of long-term use of exoskeletons as well as user acceptance/experience, with the tenet to improve the methods, materials, and the designs to reduce the risk of injury for workers and improving the state of the art in musculoskeletal modelling and the methods used to evaluate the risk of injury.