Assessment and functional validation of a passive upper limb exoskeleton oriented to workplace assistance

This thesis focuses on the assessment and functional validation of an upperlimb exoskeleton (MATE) designed to support workers during overhead tasks or repetitive manual manipulations. The rationale for developing MATE, is to reduce the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal diseases, which is set to become increasingly alarming in the context of occupational injuries. MATE Exoskeleton has been designed with the ultimate purpose of reducing the upper limb physical effort without affecting the human joint kinematics. The adoption of such a wearable device, which operates in an efficient, deterministic and reliable way, may be crucial, from the viewpoint of industries, in order to guarantee the worker's welfare. Thus, an experimental study has been conducted in a laboratory framework aimed at testing the device's performance and ergonomics. The session involved the simulation of some functional (work-tasks) and non-functional movements. Results show reduced electromyographic activities up to ~50% wearing the exoskeleton, with no significative changes in the shoulder ROM