Wearable devices in industry 5.0 – a systematic literature review

As industries transition towards greater sustainability, it is essential to consider not only economic and environmental factors but also the societal impact of this change. Ensuring worker safety, physical health, and psychological well-being is crucial for the efficient and resilient operation of industrial activities. In this context, the emerging paradigm of industry 5.0 aims to redefine manufacturing by shifting the focus from the production process to the worker, fostering effortless human-robot collaboration (HRC) in manufacturing environments designed to enhance worker’s well-being. Wearable sensors and devices play a key role in this transformation, enabling objective ergonomic assessment and providing accurate measurements of the worker’s physical and psychological health, as well as enabling seamless human-machine interaction (HMI). However, no investigation has been carried out so far, to assess how wearable devices can aid in reaching Industry 5.0 goals. Given the importance of wearable technologies as a tool to enable the principles of industry 5.0, this paper presents a systematic literature review on their applications within this paradigm. Particularly, this paper aims to provide a structured analysis of existing research, examining how these technologies have been implemented and assessed in industrial settings. Articles falling within the scope of the review have been systematically selected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. For such articles, the review explores the different stages of the implementation of wearable technologies in industry, firstly discussing experimental design and the technologies used, then exploring data pre-processing techniques, features extracted from raw data, and artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms used to interpret them. Furthermore, potential areas of interest for future research and practical applications in the field are proposed.