eXoft, Innovative Soft-Rigid Exoskeleton for Smart Factory

Work related musculo-skeletal disorders represent a relevant percentage of occupational diseases in developed countries. Aside the laborers 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 spread of wearable devices in industrial scenarios could bring advantages not only to jobs ergonomics and injuries assessment, but also to safety and risk management. The exoskeletons worn by labourers can be conceived as tools able to share quantitative data about the user posture and position within the working environment for active safety strategies and machines command. The object of the eXoft project is an active exoskeleton with innovative mechanical and actuation designs, conceived for integration in collaborative robotics environment. The purpose is to improve the comfort and safety of labourers tasked with heavy or repetitive jobs, while providing a tool for a safer integration of human-in-the-loop workflows.