0
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR
  • Base de données et galerie internationale d'ouvrages d'art et du génie civil

Publicité

Usability and Biomechanical Testing of Passive Exoskeletons for Construction Workers: A Field-Based Pilot Study

Auteur(s):

ORCID
ORCID
ORCID



Médium: article de revue
Langue(s): anglais
Publié dans: Buildings, , n. 3, v. 13
Page(s): 822
DOI: 10.3390/buildings13030822
Abstrait:

The labor-intensive nature of the construction industry requires workers to frequently perform physically demanding manual work, thereby exposing them to the risk of musculoskeletal injury (approximately 31.2 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent workers). Exoskeletons and exosuits (collectively called EXOs here) are designed to protect workers from these injuries by reducing exertion and muscle fatigue during work. However, the usability of EXOs in construction is still not clear. This is because extant EXO assessments in construction were mainly conducted in laboratory environments with test participants who are not construction professionals. In this research, we conducted a pilot study to investigate the usability of EXOs in a real construction workplace. Four experienced workers were recruited to push/empty construction gondolas with and without a Back-Support EXO, HeroWear Apex. Three workers were recruited to install/remove wooden blocks between steel studs with and without two Arm-Support EXOs, i.e., Ekso EVO and Hilti EXO-001. Their motions, postures, heart rates, and task completion times were recorded and compared. The workers were also surveyed to gather their attitudes toward the EXO’s usefulness and ease of use. The study results demonstrated that the workers responded to the use of EXOs differently and consequently were not unanimously in favor of EXO adoption in practice. The preliminary results and findings from this pilot study help in building a foundation of understanding to improve EXO products to fit the needs of construction workers and foster EXO-enabled construction tasks in the future.

Copyright: © 2023 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
License:

Cette oeuvre a été publiée sous la license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0). Il est autorisé de partager et adapter l'oeuvre tant que l'auteur est crédité et la license est indiquée (avec le lien ci-dessus). Vous devez aussi indiquer si des changements on été fait vis-à-vis de l'original.

  • Informations
    sur cette fiche
  • Reference-ID
    10728084
  • Publié(e) le:
    30.05.2023
  • Modifié(e) le:
    01.06.2023
 
Structurae coopère avec
International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE)
e-mosty Magazine
e-BrIM Magazine