Drees Tobias, Ralfs Lennart, Reimeir Benjamin, Lemmerz Kai, Weidner Robert, Kuhlenkötter Bernd
Chair of Production Systems (LPS), Ruhr-University Bochum, Industriestraße 38c, 44894 Bochum, Germany.
Chair of Production Technology, Institute of Mechatronics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 13, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Prod Eng. 2025;19(3-4):763-780. doi: 10.1007/s11740-025-01338-x. Epub 2025 Mar 20.
Occupational exoskeletons for industrial workplaces hold significant promise for improving worker ergonomics and safety. However, the successful selection of an exoskeleton depends on informed decision-making processes that consider various factors ranging from biomechanical performance to usability and compatibility with work tasks. This paper presents a methodology that aims to develop a co-simulation-based selection tool for selecting an exoskeleton for specific industrial work tasks. It integrates multidisciplinary knowledge from biomechanics, human factors engineering, and industrial ergonomics for assessing the suitability of exoskeletons across diverse industrial applications. The methodology is designed as a stage-gate process with five main stages corresponding to the product development process. It describes the main tasks in each phase, their results, and the gates between the stages. The tasks and results are derived and detailed from the current literature and preliminary work. The gates include the specification of the simulation and decision-relevant input and output parameters, the design of the co-simulation model consisting of task and biomechanical simulation, the weighting of the individual decision criteria, and the subsequent implementation of the multi-criteria decision analysis to create a ranking of suitable exoskeletons. This work concludes by elaborating on the impact of the novel co-simulation methodology on research and industry. Research implications include advanced simulation methods for exoskeleton evaluation, the systematic comparison of different exoskeletons, and the development of decision analysis models. Benefits to the industry include improved compatibility, informed selection processes, reduced investment risks, and increased technology adoption.
用于工业工作场所的职业外骨骼在改善工人的人体工程学和安全性方面具有巨大潜力。然而，成功选择外骨骼取决于明智的决策过程，该过程要考虑从生物力学性能到可用性以及与工作任务的兼容性等各种因素。本文提出了一种方法，旨在开发一种基于联合仿真的选择工具，用于为特定工业工作任务选择外骨骼。它整合了生物力学、人因工程学和工业人体工程学等多学科知识，以评估外骨骼在各种工业应用中的适用性。该方法被设计为一个阶段门流程，有五个主要阶段，对应于产品开发过程。它描述了每个阶段的主要任务、其结果以及各阶段之间的关卡。任务和结果源自当前文献和初步工作并进行了详细阐述。关卡包括仿真和决策相关输入输出参数的规范、由任务和生物力学仿真组成的联合仿真模型的设计、各个决策标准的加权，以及随后实施多标准决策分析以创建合适外骨骼的排名。本文通过阐述这种新颖的联合仿真方法对研究和行业的影响来结束。研究意义包括用于外骨骼评估的先进仿真方法、不同外骨骼的系统比较以及决策分析模型的开发。对行业的好处包括提高兼容性、明智的选择过程、降低投资风险以及增加技术采用率。
