Top 4 tips to improve occupational exoskeletons

Texan engineers evaluated four occupational exoskeleton systems currently in the marketplace. Informed by their research, here are four top tips to designers.

Wearable exoskeletons have the potential to reduce workplace physical strain and protect employees from injury, especially in high-strain industries like construction, manufacturing and health care. Yet, the technology has yet to achieve widespread adoption.

Intent on using their findings to help guide the next generation of exoskeleton design for manufacturers seeking to bring exoskeleton technology from the research lab to the workplace, a team of engineers from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) evaluated four occupational exoskeleton systems currently in the marketplace — the Ironhand, Chairless Chair, Skelex and Laevo.

As part of the study, the team examined the amount of time it took participants to assemble, don, remove and disassemble each device. The number of procedural steps, the number of parts involved and usability issues that users encountered during set-up were also examined.

What they found was that the simplest device took 39 steps to set up, while the most complex took 110 steps. With assembly time ranging from six-and-a-half minutes to 25 minutes, each additional step increased completion time, while usability problems further slowed performance — with failure rates of up to 49% for one device.

Even if an exoskeleton effectively reduces physical strain, workers may be reluctant to use it if set-up is time-consuming, confusing or prone to errors, they said. As a result, usability represents a critical barrier to workplace adoption, the team concluded.

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Top 4 tips for designers

1. Reduce the number of steps.
2. Eliminate the need for special tools and body measurements.
3. Build in self-aligning connections and provide clear ‘you got it right’ feedback.
4. Make sure one person can do the whole thing alone.

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“A device that’s helpful to wear from a biomechanics standpoint is useless if it takes half an hour to assemble or needs a second person to put on,” said Associate Professor Priyadarshini Pennathur from the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and System Engineering.

Pennathur leads a UTEP lab focused on human performance and behaviour, one of its goals being to help workers in high-strain industries. This study was completed in a lab setting, with engineering students serving as participants. Its findings were published open access in PLOS One and you can read it at doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348001.

Image: UTEP student Juliana Guevara Mendoza, left, wears a grip strength support device (Ironhand) and the sit-stand support exoskeleton (Chairless Chair), while Jessica Sanchez-Balandran works with a shoulder support exoskeleton (Skelex). Source: UTEP