Identification of Usage Scenarios for Robotic Exoskeletons in the Context of the Hong Kong Construction Industry

Abstract

Exoskeletons can be seen as an archetype of a truly sustainable manufacturing technology since they empower human beings rather than aiming at their substitution. Exoskeletons have been characterized by rapid technological advances in the last decade, as well as an increase of activities attempting to develop feasible usage scenarios for many industries. However, usage concepts for this technology in the construction industry are still rare. This contrasts with the fact that exoskeletons are theoretically ideal for labor intensive industries such as construction. Therefore, in the study presented in this paper, we made a first attempt to conceptually bridge the gap between exoskeleton typologies and construction tasks so as to provide guidance for future target oriented scenarios and technology development. We utilized the Hong Kong housing construction industry as a case study. Consequently, we developed a construction specific classification of exoskeletons and analyzed the suitability and applicability of the resulting exoskeleton types for Hong Kong's housing construction tasks. Our study identified, amongst others, hotspot task areas with high appropriateness for exoskeleton use, task areas with similar needs and usage patterns regarding exoskeletons. Furthermore, our study sheds light on the regimes and rationales behind the identified appropriateness levels. Based on our findings, a set of basic guidelines was developed to support and govern future research and development activities targeting the exoskeleton usage in construction.

Exoskeletons at your service: a multi-disciplinary structured literature review

“…The current nomenclature of “exoskeleton” was widely adopted from the 1990s onward (Yang et al , 2008). In engineering disciplines, the term “wearable robot” is used to define an exoskeleton (Ebrahimi, 2017; Linner et al , 2018), although some authors use a conceptual distinction in that a robot functions autonomously, whereas the operation of an exoskeleton is solely dependent on the input of a wearer (Butler and Wisner, 2017). Emphasis is also placed on the mechanical and wearable nature of exoskeletons and exoskeleton operation within role environments (Anam and Al-Jumaily, 2012; Rosheim, 1994; Kim et al , 2019).…”

“…As observed in the literature, exoskeletons could provide physical assistance in preventing physical strain and injuries among service employees (Bär et al , 2021) and provide value through handling heavy or awkward goods for consumers. This increase in physical assistance or human performance augmentation (Young and Ferris, 2017; Garcia et al , 2002), may allow for frontline service employees to perform within expanded role parameters (Constantinescu et al , 2016), operate with increased role performance and task process efficiencies (Linner et al , 2018) and provide task optimization opportunities and redesigned role parameters when integrated effectively (Ippolito et al , 2020). Moreover, the integration of exoskeletons within non-frontline role environments has been observed to improve reported perceptions of task competence and satisfaction among employees (Goode, 2017; Spada et al , 2017) and decreased perceived role strain and injury downtime (Maltseva, 2020; Moyon et al , 2018).…”

Structuring the context for construction robot development through integrated scenario approach

“…[4,13,14]). In addition, new forms of robots have emerged, such as adding and integrating aerial approaches [15], exoskeletons for power augmentation [16], additive manufacturing technologies [17], collaborative robots [18], and humanoid robot technology [19]. Such robots help construction workers with more general tasks and can be considered to be task-generic.…”

“…Based on Table 4, policies can be proposed for all stakeholders along the value chain, including industry (also conventional construction companies and emerging companies for construction robots), government (its departments and agencies), and academia in [24] to promote the application of construction robots. It is recommended for the industry to first focus on more affordable wearable robotics or assistant robotics that are well developed in other industries (e.g., [15,16]), and pay attention to those trades facing severe labor problems.…”

Exoworkathlon: A prospective study approach for the evaluation of industrial exoskeletons

“…Industrial exoskeletons are assistive tools for heavy physical work with a still young history of use. There are increasing examples of their application in industrial tasks such as box picking in logistics, car body assembly, manual welding, or construction (Linner et al, 2018 ; Crea et al, 2021 ; Marinov, 2021 ; Schmalz et al, 2021 ; Pacifico et al, 2022 ). The main reasons for using exoskeletons are high-stress levels for workers, which are difficult to eliminate by technical or organizational measures (Daub, 2017 ).…”