Would you care for an extra hand? The many faces of Industry 4.0

Roberto Saracco November 20, 2017 Blog 715 Views

 

Ekso, a robotic exoskeleton used by a Ford worker on the assembly line of Ford Focus at the Wayne assembly plant. Credit: Ford

The FDC Symbiotic Autonomous Initiative has just published its White Paper on the status and trends in autonomous systems. A part of that paper focuses on human augmentation and points out that this is happening today.

An example that just came under my eyes if the exoskeleton being tested by Ford workers in the Ford assembly line at Wayne.

The exoskeleton is a wearable robot produced by Ekso Bionics specifically adapted to the needs of Ford workers operating in an assembly line (see clip). It provides arm support, highly decreasing the fatigue of keeping your arm high as you are performing overhead tasks like fastening bolts on the car chassis.

The robot is composed by sensors and motors that can provide lift assistance to the arms up to 6.8kg. It has been designed to increase safety on the job and decrease fatigue. New version will allow workers to handle increased weight, actually augmenting their strength.

So far it has been used on a trial base at the Ford plant. The trial was supposed to end in August 2017 but the workers involved have pressed to keep using them so they are still in use.

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About Roberto Saracco

Roberto Saracco fell in love with technology and its implications long time ago. His background is in math and computer science. Until April 2017 he led the EIT Digital Italian Node and then was head of the Industrial Doctoral School of EIT Digital up to September 2018. Previously, up to December 2011 he was the Director of the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, looking at the interplay of technology evolution, economics and society. At the turn of the century he led a World Bank-Infodev project to stimulate entrepreneurship in Latin America. He is a senior member of IEEE where he leads the New Initiative Committee and co-chairs the Digital Reality Initiative. He is a member of the IEEE in 2050 Ad Hoc Committee. He teaches a Master course on Technology Forecasting and Market impact at the University of Trento. He has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines and 14 books.

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