Knowledge-based Planning for the Use of Exoskeletons

近年来，人与技术的互动和融合加剧。外骨骼作为人机交互的一种方式，在工业上越来越成为一种合适的支撑技术。根据生产情况，外骨骼适合于支持工人，因为它们能够促进和增加运动或稳定姿势。然而，到目前为止，基于模拟的外骨骼选择和适应的支持方法或工具只存在于单个方面。由于缺乏关于外骨骼在手工生产场景中从动力学和运动学方面进行详细和综合模拟的证据和模型，外骨骼在工作活动中对人体的定向使用和支持作用仍然存在不确定性。为了解决这个问题，ExoExpert的目标是开发一种新的规划方法，包括一个模拟模型，为识别手动生产过程的外骨骼和调整系统行为提供决策支持。该项目旨在帮助人体工程学家和工程师在系统实施之前为工业场景适当地评估、选择和调整外骨骼。这种基于知识和模拟的方法由四个主要组成部分组成。在分析了异质外骨骼的特点和现有方法的基础上，提出了(1)异质外骨骼的评价体系。该系统将作为开发(2)联合仿真模型的基础，该模型由(A)与工艺相关的以及(B)技术和生物力学参数的建模和仿真组成。一个(3)决策模型将使与环境适应的外骨骼选择有关的联合模拟结果可操作。最后一步是在推广该方法之前，使用外骨骼演示器对所开发的方法进行了实际验证和优化。ExoExpert首次能够以交互方式对外骨骼进行建模和人体工学评估。其根本创新在于其基于整体知识和模拟的方法。此外，该方法有助于在实现之前检查外骨骼运动执行的可能性。因此，该方法可能会使外骨骼的不成功、耗时和金钱的实施成为多余的，并有助于减少工程工作量。联合研究将在波鸿鲁尔大学(RUB)生产系统教席和因斯布鲁克大学(UIBK)生产技术教席上进行。

The interaction and integration of humans and technology have intensified in recent years. As one approach for human-machine interaction, exoskeletons have increasingly been emerging as a suitable support technology in industry. Depending on the production scenario, exoskeletons are suited to support workers, as they are capable of either facilitating and adding movements or stabilizing postures. Until now, supportive methods or tools for the simulation-based selection and adaption of exoskeletons only exist for single aspects though. Due to the lack of evidence and models for the detailed and integrated simulation of exoskeletons in manual production scenarios with respect to dynamic and kinematic aspects, uncertainty remains about the targeted use and supportive effect of exoskeletons on the human body in work activities. To address this issue, ExoExpert aims to develop a novel planning method including a simulation model to provide decision support for identifying exoskeletons for manual production processes and adapting system behaviour. The project is supposed to assist ergonomists and engineers in appropriately evaluating, selecting, and adapting exoskeletons for industrial scenarios prior to system implementation. The knowledge- and simulation-based method consists of four major building blocks. Based on the analysis of characteristics and state-of the- art methods, an (1) evaluation systematic for heterogenous exoskeletons will be conceptualized. This systematic will serve as the basis for the development of the (2) co-simulation model, which is composed of the modeling and simulation of (a) process-related as well as (b) technical and biomechanical parameters. A (3) decision model will operationalize the co-simulation results concerning the context-adapted selection of exoskeletons. The last step provides the (4) practical validation and optimization of the developed method using exoskeletal demonstrators before the method is generalized. ExoExpert first-time enables to interactively model and ergonomically evaluate exoskeletons. The fundamental innovation lies in its holistic knowledge- and simulation-based approach. Besides, the method helps check possibilities of movement executions of exoskeletons prior to implementation. Thus, the method can potentially make an unsuccessful, time- and money-consuming implementation of exoskeletons redundant and help reduce the engineering workload. The joint research will be carried out on the Chair of Production Systems at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and Chair of Production Technology at the University Innsbruck (UIBK).