Industrial Exoskeletons as Tools for Ensuring Industrial Safety. Normative and Technical Regulation

Abstract

A significant role in ensuring industrial safety in terms of protecting the interests of the employees personality belongs to the occupational safety, which is directly related to the system of preserving the life and health of the employees in the course of the work activities. Occupational morbidity associated with the effect of physical overload and overstrain of individual organs and systems occupies the second rank position in the structure of occupational pathology depending on the harmful production factor. In this regard, the current and promising direction is the development of industrial exoskeleton technologies that can protect the musculoskeletal system of an employee from excessive physical activity. At the same time, the problem that creates significant restrictions on the introduction of industrial exoskeletons in industries, both in Russia and in other countries, is the lack of an appropriate regulatory-technical base. Using the example of the activity of F48 Committee «Exoskeletons and exosuits» of ASTM, the results of the work of foreign experts in the field of standardization are presented, and the main problematic issues are highlighted. Approaches to this problem in the Russian Federation are shown, where industrial exoskeletons can represent a promising type of personal protective equipment for the musculoskeletal system, the use of which is aimed at reducing the negative influence of a harmful production factor — the severity of the labor process. It is established that when developing the regulatory-technical base regulating testing and operation of industrial exoskeletons, it is necessary to combine the efforts of specialists in the technical and biomedical profile, developers, potential consumers and representatives of the scientific and research organizations, while focusing on existing domestic developments, as well as taking into account foreign experience.