Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida
The invasion of technology in everyday life is inevitable, notwithstanding rising concerns over humans surrendering their freedom and turn into the unique "useless class" as described by Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari.
On the logistics front, particularly in the distribution arena, Amazon needs to be credited for being the Big Elephant that created a storm over the inhuman treatment of the workforce at its fulfillment centers - a critical wing of logistics. Zillions of words have been written on this issue with Amazon's focus. That's on one side.
Fatigue and the resultant accidents inside fulfillment centers are part and parcel of warehouses. Amazon has a dubious distinction on this score. Lifting, carrying from shelves to the conveyor belts, or loading and unloading at the docks warrant heavy physical activity and much of these chores can be automated. That's what Amazon implementing most successfully. Otherwise, it would not be the cynosure of all eyes across the world where it is the byword for superfast service and in the bargain made a killing during the Covid era when the entire world is in shutdown mode, thus compelling the seven billion populace in every part of the world to opt for online purchase of everything including the essentials.
Such happenings create new business opportunities. Can these challenges be tackled using technology? Well, it is happening. A Netherlands-based company has stepped in with exosuits. Warehouse workers strap these suits to "help ease the strain of lifting heavy boxes all day" reports the Wall Street Journal. (suibscription required)
A lot of research in biomechanics is happening. "Our long-term goal is to create a portable wearable robot that assists the wearer during walking and can reduce their metabolic expenditure compared to regular walking. To work toward these goals, we have proposed a new paradigm in assistive device design which we call soft clothing-like "exosuits", write .... Alan Asbeck, Stefano De Rossi, Ignacio Galiana, Ye Deng, and Conor J Walsh, members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in a paper submitted to Harvard Biodesign Lab (HBL) whose tagline reads, "Augmenting and restoring human performance".
According to these research scholars, these devices use textiles to interface to the body, and apply joint torques via tensile forces over the outside of the body n parallel with the muscles, utilizing the bone structure to support compressive loads.
HBL claims exosuits enjoy several advantages: "the wearer's joints are unconstrained by external rigid structures, and the worn part of the suit is extremely light. These properties minimize the suit's unintentional interference with the body's natural biomechanics and allow for more synergistic interaction with the wearer.
Significantly, Ignacio Galiana is the CEO at Verve Motion that enabled ADUSA to roll out pilots.
Verve Motion claims that its exosuits reduce strain by 30-40%. Certainly, these extra fittings will not eliminate the strain, fatigue, and therefore injuries at the workplace. The opinion is divided over the effectiveness of such technological equipment.
While there is extensive work on the analysis of the effects of wearing a soft exosuit on the kinematics, energetics, and muscular activation during walking [33], the authors are unaware of comparable studies on movements of the upper limbs, whose variety of volitional motions is fundamentally different from the rhythmic nature of walking, say researchers Michele Xiloyannis, Domenico Chiaradia, Antonio Frisoli and Lorenzo Masia in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.
Adds they: "Understanding how these devices affect the physiology and mechanics of human movements is fundamental for quantifying their benefits and drawbacks, assessing their suitability for different applications, and guiding a continuous data-driven design refinement."
Are these pieces of equipment, cosmetic or genuine? A long-term thorough study of workers using these exosuits is needed.
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