Towards a Framework for Evaluating Exoskeletons

Abstract

Industrial exoskeletons are designed to support the user in performing physically demanding tasks at the workplace. Different kinds of exoskeletons in respect to supported body parts, morphological structure, and specific function-alities have already been developed and tested on the field. Due to no standardi-zation, evaluation processes are unstructured and often consider only a fraction of relevant aspects, which weakens their reliability and comparability. Critical system effects might also remain unnoticed. This paper presents a framework for evaluating exoskeletons for industrial application, considering vital parameters such as level of support, comfort, or safety. The presented validation space, con-sisting of tasks, human capabilities, and contexts, helps the investigator to derive a suitable test protocol including test parameters and criteria as well as to interpret and reflect the results. Perspectives of different stakeholders like developer and purchaser can also shift the focus of the evaluation process. For a better compre-hension, one example demonstrates the usage of the presented framework.