Work related musculo-skeletal disorders represent a relevant percentage of occupational diseases in developed countries. Aside the workers discomfort, they also reflect on companies with relevant economic effects. Nonetheless, the spread of exoskeletons for industrial applications is still limited. The reasons are to be sought on how they are perceived by workers: for many of them, their reduced mobility and not perfect adaptability to the kinematics of the human body make them more of a nuisance than a real help.

The purpose of the project is to improve the comfort and safety of laborer tasked with heavy or repetitive jobs, while providing a tool for a safer integration of human-in-the-loop workflows. The technological and scientific advancements required by the project will be pursued by four macro-activities: design and prototyping of a hybrid (soft-rigid) mechanism, design of a human-robot interaction control, design of an innovative actuation paradigm, and integration of the device features in collaborative robotics work scenario. Each activity will be carried out by a different unit and will step through the definition of design methods and requirements which will converge in an innovative device. The key idea is to get rid of the limitations given by traditional exoskeletons by introducing soft elements in the kinematic structure aimed at enhancing the motility perceived by the user. Also, the design of a novel device will allow it to integrate with the necessary extero- and proprioception ability useful for operation in a wider collaborative work environment.

A set of control strategies will be designed to enable safe and efficient interactions between the exoskeleton, its wearer and the collaborative robots in the environment. The main features of the HRI control can be summarized as follows:

· Transparency, for a prompt reply to the user
· Adaptivity of the level of assistance
· Safety of the operator

ENTE PROMOTORE: MUR

NOME PROGETTO: EXOFT

PERIODO E DURATA: 24 mesi, 28/09/2023 – 27/09/2025

FINANZIAMENTO: € 60.050

COORDINATORI: Università Politecnica delle Marche

REFERENTI SSSA: Massimiliano Solazzi