Design and implementation requirements for increased acceptance of occupational exoskeletons in an industrial context: a qualitative study

Shirley Elprama; Sander De Bock; Romain Meeusen; Kevin De Pauw; Bram Vanderborght; An Jacobs

doi:10.1080/10447318.2023.2247597

Design and implementation requirements for increased acceptance of occupational exoskeletons in an industrial context: a qualitative study

Shirley Elprama, Sander De Bock, Romain Meeusen, Kevin De Pauw, Bram Vanderborght, An Jacobs

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

6 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Occupational exoskeletons are not yet frequently used at work. Previous research has indicatedmultiple factors (physiological, implementation-related, work-related, policy, and psycho-social)that can explain this lack of adoption. However, there is a lack of specific requirements related tothese themes to improve exoskeletons and their adoption. Therefore, the goal of our research isto formulate concrete requirements for the design and implementation of exoskeletons. We useda design ethnography approach (focus groups, an interview, observations, surveys, and groupinterviews) with multiple stakeholders (users, designers, and potential future users). Our data sug-gest that potential future users of exoskeletons believe that existing exoskeletons should beimproved to be adopted. Exoskeletons should be more comfortable to wear and flexible enoughto support a wider range of tasks. We have formulated 49 requirements for occupational exoskele-tons, and we validated and extended an existing framework. Our work encourages the improveddesign of future or existing exoskeletons.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6051-6066
Number of pages	16
Journal	International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
Volume	40
Issue number	19
Early online date	1 Sep 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.2247597
Publication status	Published - 2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank all the participants for their contributions to this research. We also would like to thank Lennert Vierendeels for engaging companies to participate in our research. We thank Aya Seif Eddin for transcribing the focus groups and help with moderating them. This research was conducted as part of the EU Sophia project and funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (H2020-ICT-2019-2/2019-2023) under grant agreement No. 871237, and as part of euROBIN, which was funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Program (grant number 101070596). It was also partially funded by Strategic Research Program 77, entitled Exercise and the Brain in Health and Disease: The Added Value of Human-Centered Robotics. The focus groups were commissioned by Carglass, Daikin and DEME-Group.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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10.1080/10447318.2023.2247597

Elprama et al. (2023) author accepted manuscriptAccepted author manuscript, 971 KBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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title = "Design and implementation requirements for increased acceptance of occupational exoskeletons in an industrial context: a qualitative study",

abstract = "Occupational exoskeletons are not yet frequently used at work. Previous research has indicatedmultiple factors (physiological, implementation-related, work-related, policy, and psycho-social)that can explain this lack of adoption. However, there is a lack of specific requirements related tothese themes to improve exoskeletons and their adoption. Therefore, the goal of our research isto formulate concrete requirements for the design and implementation of exoskeletons. We useda design ethnography approach (focus groups, an interview, observations, surveys, and groupinterviews) with multiple stakeholders (users, designers, and potential future users). Our data sug-gest that potential future users of exoskeletons believe that existing exoskeletons should beimproved to be adopted. Exoskeletons should be more comfortable to wear and flexible enoughto support a wider range of tasks. We have formulated 49 requirements for occupational exoskele-tons, and we validated and extended an existing framework. Our work encourages the improveddesign of future or existing exoskeletons.",

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Design and implementation requirements for increased acceptance of occupational exoskeletons in an industrial context: a qualitative study. / Elprama, Shirley ; De Bock, Sander ; Meeusen, Romain ; De Pauw, Kevin ; Vanderborght, Bram ; Jacobs, An.

In: International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 40, No. 19, 2024, p. 6051-6066.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Design and implementation requirements for increased acceptance of occupational exoskeletons in an industrial context: a qualitative study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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EUAR21: H2020: SOPHIA - Socio-physical Interaction Skills for Cooperative Human-Robot Systems in Agile Production

The acceptance of occupational exoskeletons

Cite this

Design and implementation requirements for increased acceptance of occupational exoskeletons in an industrial context: a qualitative study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

EUAR21: H2020: SOPHIA - Socio-physical Interaction Skills for Cooperative Human-Robot Systems in Agile Production

Activities

The acceptance of occupational exoskeletons

Cite this