FW-HTF-P: Collaborative Research: Wearable Safety and Health Assistive Robot Collaboration for Skilled Construction Workers

该FW-HTF规划项目的研究目标是建立一个协同团队并提供共生解决方案，为熟练的建筑工人开发和部署可穿戴安全与健康辅助机器人。目前，建筑工人在危险的工作环境中承受着高强度的体力劳动和严重的安全健康风险。因此，建筑业成为美国风险最高的私营部门之一。技术工人的短缺给建筑行业改善工人安全和健康带来了额外的挑战和压力。可穿戴机器人技术在预防与工作相关的肌肉骨骼疾病、评估和协助身体和疲劳以及学习和培训建筑行业工人技能方面具有广阔的前景。该项目将为熟练的建筑工人开发和部署个性化可穿戴辅助机器人协作。研究人员还将开发一些综合研究和教育项目，以吸引弱势群体的学生进入工程领域，并让本科生参与研究。尽管机器人技术已越来越多地应用于建筑应用，但大多数关注于使用机器人帮助执行建筑任务，很少讨论使用工业外骨骼来改善工人的安全和健康。在这个规划项目中，研究人员团队计划建立一个协同团队，并确定潜在的主题和共生解决方案来实现上述研究目标。具体来说，该项目将重点关注：（1）为建筑工人开发轻质、灵活、高性能、个性化的可穿戴外骨骼； (2) 开发基于机器学习的人类技能建模和建筑培训，(3) 发起新的跨学科合作并促进与行业合作伙伴和利益相关者的接触。拟议的机器人开发和试点研究将为将机器人技术整合到现有的社会技术工作生态系统中提供对技术和社会经济挑战的深入理解。规划拨款还将研究人类工作的重大转变对个人、组织和行业的影响，特别关注建筑工作。该项目的最终目标是培养必要的研究人员、研究基础设施和基础工作，以扩大在 FW-HTF 完整研究提案水平上研究未来技术、未来工人和未来工作的机会。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The research objective of this FW-HTF planning project is to build a synergistic team and provide symbiotic solutions to develop and deploy wearable safety and health assistive robots for skilled construction workers. Currently, construction workers suffer intense physical effort, and serious safety and health risk in hazardous working environments. As a result, construction industry becomes one of the highest-risk private sectors in the US. Shortage of skilled workers brings additional challenges and pressures to construction industry to improve workers' safety and health. Wearable robotic technology provides promising potentials to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders, assess and assist physical and fatigue, and learn and train worker skills in construction trades. The project will enable the development and deployment of personalized wearable assistive robot collaboration for skilled construction workers. The researchers will also develop a number of integrated research and education programs to attract students from underrepresented groups into engineering and involve undergraduate students into research.Although robotics technologies have been increasingly used in construction applications, most focus on the use of robots to help conduct construction tasks and few discusses the use of industrial exoskeletons for improving workers' safety and health. In this planning project, the team of researchers plan to build a synergistic team and identify potential topics and symbiotic solutions to achieve the above research goal. Specifically, this project will emphasize on: (1) develop light-weight, flexible, high-performance, personalized wearable exoskeletons for construction workers; (2) develop machine learning-based human skill modeling and training in construction, and (3) initiate new cross-disciplinary collaboration and foster engagement with industry partners and stakeholders. The proposed robotic development and pilot study will provide deep understanding of technical and socio-economic challenges for integrating robotic technologies into existing socio-technical ecosystems of work. The planning grant will also study the effects of the significant shifts in human work on individual, organization and industries with a focus specifically on construction work. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop the necessary research personnel, research infrastructure, and foundational work to expand the opportunities for studying future technology, future workers, and future work at the level of a FW-HTF full research proposal.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.