This activity has the ambition of developing robotic exoskeletons for empowering humans carrying out labour intensive and strenuous tasks, such as overhead manipulation and load lifting. Indeed, the rationale behind this activity is the need for contrasting the occurrence of work-related muscle-skeletal disorders (e.g., back pain or upper-limb diseases) among workers performing physically demanding and tiring tasks. When other measures, such as workplace re-organization or production process automation, are not feasible or effective, exoskeletons can be a valid solution. In this respect, the SSSA and IUVO teams, thanks to the expertise gained in the design, development, and validation of wearable robots for a wide range of applications, will aim at providing (1) a novel robotic multi-purpose platform and (2) algorithms for exoskeleton control based on the real-time estimate of the users’ physical fatigue. Hence, within this activity, hardware (i.e., exoskeletons) and software (i.e., control algorithms) solutions, as well as the scientific methodology to validate them will be provided.
Tuscany Health Ecosystem
SPOKE 9: Robotics and Automation for Health