Methodology for evaluation of the time-management impact of exoskeleton-centred workplaces

After successful employment of exoskeletons in military and medical applications, they became increasingly relevant for industry as well. Planning the workplaces with integrated exoskeleton raises the challenge of considering and evaluating time-management impacts. This paper presents a typology of current exoskeletons suitable for industrial applications and a literature review of work performed in evaluating the time management impacts of exoskeleton-centered workplaces. The time-impacts from exoskeletons can be described in three categories: putting-on/off and transit times, task execution impacts and process-related impacts after optimization and planning with integrated exoskeletons. The task execution impacts will be presented by discussion and evaluation of each task-blocks from Methods-Time Measurement (MTM) master data for each abstracted passive exoskeleton type (trunk and lower- and upper-extremity). The putting-on/off and transit times are determined by applied methods for time evaluation (e.g. REFA) and performed experiments. Based on the diversity of task the process-related changes are not highlighted. Measurements impact of different exoskeleton types and providers are discussed and conclusions are presented and next steps are established.