Knowledge-based Planning for the Use of Exoskeletons

近年来，人类与技术的互动和融合不断加强。作为人机交互的一种方式，外骨骼已经越来越多地成为工业中合适的支撑技术。根据生产情况，外骨骼适合支持工人，因为它们能够促进和增加运动或稳定姿势。到目前为止，用于外骨骼的基于模拟的选择和适应的支持方法或工具仅存在于单个方面。由于缺乏证据和模型来详细和综合地模拟人工生产场景中的外骨骼的动态和运动学方面，外骨骼在工作活动中对人体的目标使用和支持作用仍然存在不确定性。为了解决这个问题，ExoExpert旨在开发一种新的规划方法，包括仿真模型，为识别人工生产过程的外骨骼和适应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适当评估，选择和调整外骨骼用于工业场景。基于知识和模拟的方法由四个主要的构建块组成。基于对特征和最先进方法的分析，将概念化（1）异质外骨骼的评价系统。该系统将作为开发（2）联合模拟模型的基础，该模型由（a）过程相关参数以及（B）技术和生物力学参数的建模和模拟组成。（3）决策模型将操作关于外骨骼的上下文适应选择的协同仿真结果。最后一步提供了（4）实际验证和优化的开发方法，使用外骨骼示威者之前，该方法被推广。ExoExpert首次实现交互式建模和人体工程学评估外骨骼。根本的创新在于其基于知识和模拟的整体方法。此外，该方法有助于在实现之前检查外骨骼的运动执行的可能性。因此，该方法可以潜在地使外骨骼的不成功的、耗时且耗钱的实现冗余，并且有助于减少工程工作量。这项联合研究将在波鸿鲁尔大学（RUB）生产系统系主任和因斯布鲁克大学（UIBK）生产技术系主任的主持下进行。

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).