Automatic Posture and Balance Support for Supernumerary Robotic Limbs

生物力学和人体工程学研究表明，工业中物料搬运作业往往会造成有害的工作姿势，可能导致肌肉骨骼疾病和职业伤害。可穿戴机器人系统，如额外的机械肢体，可以增强人体的机动性和操作能力，并且可以提高处理大件物品的效率，并允许老年工人保持工作。本项目旨在创造新的技术来解决多余机械肢体的人体工程学和安全性问题。设计了一种新型的支撑姿态和平衡的可穿戴机器人系统，并将其控制与多余的机械臂集成在一起，用于物料搬运。该项目的范围是研究如何通过额外的背部和平衡支撑来改善多余肢体的人体工程学。实施将基于创建和使用创新的机电一体化技术（软机器人驱动和传感、轻型电缆驱动主动机制、触觉反馈、以人为中心的交互式控制）以及姿态评估和数据处理方法（分布式无线传感、云数据存储、基于个性化机器学习的数据分析和决策）。这些项目的成果将通过开发和评估高效、安全的材料处理机器人辅助技术，对英国制造业、物流业和农业产生直接影响（占GDP的15%，雇佣超过1000万人）。

It is well-known from the biomechanics and ergonomics research that material handling tasks in industry can often cause harmful working postures, potentially leading to musculoskeletal disorders and occupational injuries. Wearable robotic systems like supernumerary (additional) robotic limbs augment human bodies with extra mobility and manipulation capabilities, and they can increase the efficiency when conducting bulky material handling tasks and allow older workers to maintain their jobs. This project aims to create novel techniques to address ergonomics and safety of supernumerary robotic limbs. A novel posture and balance support wearable robotic system will be created and its control will be integrated with the supernumerary robotic limbs for material handling. The scope of the project is to study how the ergonomics of the supernumerary limbs for material handling can be improved through additional back and balance support. The implementation will be based on creating and using innovative mechatronic technologies (soft robotic actuation and sensing; light-weight cable-driven active mechanisms; haptic feedback; human-centred interactive control) and posture assessment and data processing methods (distributed wireless sensing; Cloud data storage; personalised machine-learning based data analysis and decision-making). The outcomes of the projects will have direct impacts on the UK manufacturing, logistics and agriculture industries (>15% of GDP, employing more than 10 million people), through development and evaluation of efficient and safe material handling robotic assistive technologies.