LSU Engineering Professors to Design Wearable Exoskeleton

Aiming to improve construction worker safety and efficiency, Louisiana State University (LSU) Bert S. Turner Department of Construction Management Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator Chao Wang and LSU Industrial Engineering Professor Fereydoun Aghazadeh are collaborating with Rutgers University to develop an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to bring emerging robotic technologies, such as a wearable exoskeleton, to the construction industry.

Wang, Aghazadeh, and Rutgers recently received a $150,000 planning grant from the National Science Foundation as part of NSF’s 10 Big Ideas — Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) program to develop an exoskeleton. The award gives LSU and Rutgers one year to create a team of researchers to compete for a $3 million research grant in March. So far, their project is ahead of the game since there are few, if any, construction companies that have adopted exoskeleton technology.

This FW-HTF project has three goals — to develop lightweight, flexible, high-performance, personalized wearable exoskeletons for construction workers; develop machine learning-based human skill modeling and training in construction; and initiate new cross-disciplinary collaboration and foster engagement with industry partners and stakeholders.

Wang, who serves as the project’s principal investigator, says there are a few exoskeleton products currently available on the market, but they mainly target the industrial/manufacturing setting. The exoskeleton is still a new concept in construction because the construction site is more dynamic and complicated.

Wang and Aghazadeh will study what tasks each construction crew member performs in order to develop and train an exoskeleton that fits different construction tasks. They will consider if the robotic exoskeleton should support the upper or lower body and how much power should be given.

The robotic metal framework exoskeleton would not only promote construction workers’ safety, but also their job longevity.

The team says its motivation for this project comes from the workforce shortage in the United States. There are plenty of construction jobs along the Gulf Coast but not enough workers. Wang said what caused the workforce shortage is construction workers aging or retiring due to an injury and a decrease in young people doing construction work.

With an exoskeleton to alleviate risk of injury, more construction workers could perform for more years and do so safely and efficiently. The team said it would also open the door to more women being able to do jobs that were once solely for men.

Issues the team is trying to work out include the cost of the exoskeleton and how it could work safely in different weather conditions since it would be battery powered.

Currently, the team is collaborating with industry companies and trade schools who are not yet aware of this technology but will help them develop a better product.

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