Repetitive overhead tasks during factory work can cause shoulder injuries resulting in impaired health and productivity loss. Soft wearable upper extremity robots have the potential to be effective injury prevention tools with minimal restrictions using soft materials and active controls. We present the design and evaluation of a portable inflatable shoulder wearable robot for assisting industrial workers during shoulder-elevated tasks. The robot is worn like a shirt with integrated textile pneumatic actuators, inertial measurement units, and a portable actuation unit. It can provide up to 6.6 newton-meters of torque to support the shoulder and cycle assistance on and off at six times per minute. From human participant evaluations during simulated industrial tasks, the robot reduced agonist muscle activities (anterior, middle, and posterior deltoids and biceps brachii) by up to 40% with slight changes in joint angles of less than 7% range of motion while not increasing antagonistic muscle activity (latissimus dorsi) in current sample size. Comparison of controller parameters further highlighted that higher assistance magnitude and earlier assistance timing resulted in statistically significant muscle activity reductions. During a task circuit with dynamic transitions among the tasks, the kinematics-based controller of the robot showed robustness to misinflations (96% true negative rate and 91% true positive rate), indicating minimal disturbances to the user when assistance was not required. A preliminary evaluation of a pressure modulation profile also highlighted a trade-off between user perception and hardware demands. Finally, five automotive factory workers used the robot in a pilot manufacturing area and provided feedback.

中文翻译：

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一种便携式充气软体可穿戴机器人，可在工业作业中辅助肩部


工厂工作期间重复的开销任务会导致肩部受伤，从而导致健康和生产力下降。软体可穿戴上肢机器人有可能成为有效的伤害预防工具，使用软质材料和主动控制装置，限制最小。我们介绍了一种便携式充气肩部可穿戴机器人的设计和评估，用于协助工业工人完成肩部抬高任务。该机器人像衬衫一样穿着，带有集成的纺织气动执行器、惯性测量单元和便携式驱动单元。它可以提供高达 6.6 牛顿米的扭矩，以每分钟 6 次的速度支持肩部和循环辅助的开启和关闭。从模拟工业任务期间的人类参与者评估来看，该机器人将激动肌活动（前、中、后三角肌和肱二头肌）减少了高达 40%，关节角度的轻微变化小于 7% 的运动范围，同时没有增加拮抗肌活动（背阔肌）在当前样本量中。控制器参数的比较进一步强调，较高的辅助幅度和较早的辅助时机导致具有统计学意义的肌肉活动减少。在任务之间具有动态转换的任务电路中，机器人基于运动学的控制器表现出对充气错误（96% 真阴性率和 91% 真阳性率）的鲁棒性，这表明在不需要帮助时对用户的干扰最小。对压力调制配置文件的初步评估还强调了用户感知和硬件需求之间的权衡。最后，五名汽车工厂工人在试点制造区域使用了该机器人并提供了反馈。