College Station, TX — A recent study of construction worker use of lower-back exoskeletons found that in addition to experiencing less fatigue, workers also exhibited improved hazard recognition.
Researchers at Texas A&M University asked 16 workers at a construction site in Louisiana to complete two three-hour sessions performing their normal work with and without the exoskeleton so their fatigue could be measured. The workers were also shown images of construction hazards before and after each session and asked to identify the hazards and assess the associated risks.
The researchers found that when equipped with the exoskeleton, the workers experienced 37% less fatigue and improved their hazard recognition performance by 29%.
“Construction safety involves both your body and your mind,” lead study author Prosper Gbiengu, a graduate research assistant and doctoral student in Texas A&M’s Department of Construction Science, said in the study report. “If you reduce fatigue, that helps keep the worker more attentive, and you’re able to identify more hazards.”
The study was published in the ASCE Open: Multidisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering.