Design and Evaluation of AE4W: an Active and Flexible Shaft-Driven Shoulder Exoskeleton for Workers

The wide adoption of occupational shoulder exoskeletons in industrial settings is still limited. Passive exoskeletons were proved effective in a limited amount of application scenarios, such as (quasi-)static overhead handling tasks. Quasi-active devices, albeit representing an improved version of their passive predecessors, do not allow full modulation of the amount of assistance delivered to the user, lacking versatility and adaptability in assisting various dynamic tasks. Active occupational shoulder exoskeletons could overcome these limitations by controlling the shape of the delivered torque profile according to the task they aim to assist. However, most existing active devices are set up as a robotic platform, grounded to the floor. Their lack of compactness and portability prevents implementation in the working environment. In this work, we present a new active shoulder exoskeleton, named Active Exo4Work (AE4W). It features a kinematic structure compatible with the biological motion of the shoulder joint. Moreover, it presents a new flexible shaft-driven remote actuation system. In-vitro and in-vivo experiments have been conducted to investigate the performance of AE4W. Experimental results show that the exoskeleton is kinematically compatible with the user's workspace since it does not constrain the natural range of motion of the shoulder joint. Moreover, this device can effectively provide different types of assistance while the user executes various dynamic tasks, without altering perceived comfort.