A multi-facet approach to functional and ergonomic assessment of passive exoskeletons

Seeing the innovative character of exoskeletal devices, it appears that there is yet progress to be made in adopting exoskeletons to industry, and to the different users' characteristics and needs. Their validation is mainly focused on technological aspects and seldom researchers presented methodological approaches including both physical and cognitive impact on operators, synergically with functional issues. This study proposes a multi-faced approach to investigate the impact of passive exoskeletons on functional and ergonomic aspects providing a preliminary experimental validation with an industrial task. The approach assesses the physical comfort, muscular fatigue, cognitive workload, and users' technological acceptance, to map the overall user experience (UX). Participants were monitored by a mechanomyogram (MMG) and a motion capture (MoCap) system and a UX questionnaire was administered. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of passive exoskeletons regarding the specific task being strictly related to a correct definition of the level of assistance for each user.