An overview of various tasks and trades in the construction industry offering potential for exoskeletons

Abstract

This paper reviewed a Canadian construction firm's health, safety, and environment database. A total of 13 Canadian offices were represented in the database, spanning January 2019 through June 2022. All 4395 entries were categorized based on damage type, injury nature, accident type, and causal agent. A thorough analysis of each event description was conducted to determine whether wearable technologies if they had been available and used, could likely have prevented the accident. This paper identifies the various tasks and trades in the construction industry which offer the potential for using wearable technologies, more specifically exoskeletons. It discusses the types of accidents that could possibly be prevented by using innovative exoskeletons. Based on the findings, this study also lists criteria that exoskeletons should meet to be beneficial to construction workers' health.

Keywords: Wearable technologies, Exoskeletons, Construction industry, Musculoskeletal Disorder, Accident analysis

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1003627