Occupational exoskeletons are becoming a concrete solution to mitigate work-related musculoskeletal disorders associated with manual material handling activities. The rationale behind this study is to search for common ground for exoskeleton evaluators to engage in dialogue with corporate Health & Safety professionals while integrating exoskeletons with their workers. This study suggests an innovative interpretation of the effect of a lower-back assistive exoskeleton and related performances that are built on the benefit delivered through reduced activation of the erector spinae musculature. We introduce the concept of “equivalent weight” as the weight perceived by the wearer, and use this to explore the apparent reduced effort needed when assisted by the exoskeleton. Therefore, thanks to this assistance, the muscles experience a lower load. The results of the experimental testing on 12 subjects suggest a beneficial effect for the back that corresponds to an apparent reduction of the lifted weight by a factor of $37.5\%$ (the perceived weight of the handled objects is reduced by over a third). Finally, this analytical method introduces an innovative approach to quantify the ergonomic benefit introduced by the exoskeletons’ assistance. This aims to assess the ergonomic risk to support the adoption of exoskeletons in the workplace.

Purpose: In the context of the Industry 4.0, this paper aims to investigate the state of the art of Italian manufacturing, focusing the attention on the implementation of intelligent predictive maintenance (IPdM) and 4.0 key enabling technologies (KETs), analyzing advantages and limitations encountered by companies.Design/methodology/approach: A survey has been developed by the University of Parma in cooperation with the Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL) and was submitted to a sample of Italian companies. Overall, 70 answers were collected and analyzed.Findings: Results show that the 54% of companies implemented smart technologies, increasing quality and safety, reducing the operating costs and sometimes improving the process' sustainability. However, IPdM was implemented only by the 37% of respondents: thanks to big data collection and analytics, Internet of Things, machine learning and collaborative robots, they reduced downtime and maintenance costs. These changes were implemented mainly by large companies, located in northern Italy. To spread the use of IPdM in Italian manufacturing, the high initial investment, lack of skilled labor and difficulties in the integration of new digital technologies with the existing infrastructure are the main obstacles to overcome.Originality/value: The article gives an overview on the current state of the art of 4.0 technologies implementation in Italy: it is useful not only for companies that want to discover the implementations' advantages but also for institutions or research centres that could help them to solve the encountered obstacles.

Welcome to the WIT Press eLibrary - the home of the Transactions of the Wessex Institute collection, providing on-line access to papers presented at the Institute's prestigious international conferences and from its State-of-the-Art in Science & Engineering publications.

Industrial active exoskeletons have recently achieved considerable interest, due to their intrinsic versatility compared to passive devices. To achieve this versatility, an important open challenge is the design of appropriate control strategies to automatically modulate the physical assistance according to the activity the user is performing.This work focuses on active back-support exoskeletons. To improve the assistance provided in dynamic situations with respect to state-of-the-art methods, a new strategy making use of the angular acceleration of the user's trunk is presented.The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy were tested experimentally on a prototype in a load handling task. The main advantages in terms of assistive torque profiles emerge during the transition phases of the movement (i.e. beginning and end of lowering and lifting) indicating an appropriate adaptation to the dynamics of the execution.In this preliminary evaluation, the data on peak muscular activity at the spine show promising trends, encouraging further developments and a more detailed evaluation.