Collaborative Research: NRI: Understanding Underlying Risks and Sociotechnical Challenges of Powered Wearable Exoskeleton to Construction Workers

各种各样的可穿戴机器人正在涌现，作为建筑行业人类操作挑战的解决方案。这种解决方案的目的是通过提供升降机支撑、重量分散和姿势纠正来减少工人因工作而造成的身体伤害。尽管这些可穿戴机器人在减少建筑工人的体力需求方面具有潜力，但目前的知识体系并未充分了解在建筑工地安装这些机器人的风险和挑战。鉴于建筑行业中大量的背部相关损伤，本研究有助于支持电动背部支撑机器人在建筑行业中的设计和广泛使用。通过了解这些可穿戴机器人在建筑工地上的潜在身体、心理和社会技术风险，该项目旨在克服建筑行业可扩展采用这些可穿戴机器人的挑战，从而提高美国建筑业750万工人的安全和生产率。此外，这项研究将为制造商设计更具适应性、可访问性、可接受性和舒适性的可穿戴机器人提供经验证据，以适应更广泛的身体形状和尺寸，以考虑建筑行业的不同人群。这项跨学科研究旨在整合各种关键创新的进展，包括沉浸式技术、生理传感、可穿戴机器人和组织心理学，以确定建筑行业外骨骼潜在的物理、心理和社会技术风险。该项目的技术目标分为三个方面。第一个推动力将利用社会技术观点来确定建筑业采用外骨骼的障碍和促进者。第二个推力将产生一个身临其境的交互式虚拟现实试验台，用于可行地模拟使用这些外骨骼执行的不同建筑任务。特别是，这一努力将开发一个以用户为中心的模拟工作空间，以无缝地检查不同的交互，以安全和可行地评估相关的身体和心理风险。第三个推力将设计一个新的以工人为中心的风险评估框架，用于评估建筑工人使用这些外骨骼的身体和心理风险。具体地说，这一推力将结合人工智能和客观评估，在生理和心理生理数据与工人在施工任务中的局部肌肉疲劳、跌倒风险、关节过度伸展、认知工作量、信任和警觉性之间开发一条新的解释管道。这三个研究目标将得到一个全面的评估计划的补充，该计划包括三个中期评估，以确保项目的可靠性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A wide range of wearable robots are emerging as solutions to human operation challenges in the construction sector. The aim for such solutions is to reduce work-related physical injuries among workers by providing lift support, weight dispersion, and posture correction. In spite of the potential of these wearable robots in reducing the physical demands of construction workers, the current body of knowledge does not provide an adequate understanding of the risks and challenges of incorporating these robots on construction sites. Given the large number of back-related injuries in the construction industry, this research contributes to supporting the design and widespread use of powered back-support robots in the construction industry. By understanding the potential physical, psychological, and socio-technical risks of these wearable robots at construction sites, this project aims to overcome the challenges of scalable adoption of these wearable robots in the construction industry, thereby improving the safety and productivity of 7.5 million workers in the U.S. construction sector. Furthermore, this research will provide empirical evidence for manufacturers to design more adaptable, accessible, acceptable, and comfortable wearable robots for a wider range of body shapes and sizes to take into account diverse populations of the construction sector.This interdisciplinary research seeks to integrate advances across a diverse spectrum of critical innovations, including immersive technologies, physiological sensing, wearable robots, and organizational psychology, to identify the underlying physical, psychological, and socio-technical risks of exoskeletons in the construction sector. The technical aims of this project are divided into three thrusts. The first thrust will utilize a socio-technical perspective to identify barriers and facilitators to the adoption of exoskeletons in the construction industry. The second thrust will generate an immersive and interactive virtual-reality testbed for the feasible simulation of different construction tasks executed using these exoskeletons. In particular, this thrust will develop a user-centered, simulated workspace to seamlessly examine different interactions for a safe and feasible evaluation of pertinent physical and psychological risks. The third thrust will design a novel worker-centered risk assessment framework for evaluating the physical and psychological risks of using these exoskeletons for construction workers. Specifically, this thrust will integrate artificial intelligence and objective evaluations to develop a new interpretive pipeline between physiological and psychophysiological data with local muscular fatigue, fall risk, joint hyperextension, cognitive workload, trust, and vigilance of workers during the construction tasks. These three research aims will be complemented by a comprehensive evaluation plan featuring three intermediate evaluations to ensure the reliability of the project.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.