Exoskeletons at your service: a multi-disciplinary structured literature review

Abstract

Purpose Exoskeletons are characterized as wearable, mechanical orthoses that augment the physical performance of the wearer, enhance productivity and employee well-being when used in value producing contexts. However, limited research involving exoskeleton usage by service employees in frontline contexts has been undertaken within service research. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of exoskeleton research undertaken within the context of value-producing roles, introduce exoskeletons conceptually to the service research domain, provide new conceptualizations of service exchange interactions involving physically augmented service actors and propose future avenues of exoskeleton research in alignment with key service theories. Design/methodology/approach A multi-disciplinary structured literature review based on the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses method was undertaken across a variety of literature fields. A final selection of n = 25 papers was selected for analysis from an initial sample of N = 3,537. Given the emergent nature of exoskeleton research and the variety of methodology types used between literature fields, a thematic analysis approach was used for analysing identified papers. Findings The literature review identified four main themes within role-focused exoskeleton research. These themes informed proposals for future exoskeleton research with respect to key service theories and typologies. The findings demonstrate that the presence of an exoskeleton changes the behaviours and interactions of service employees. The augmented social presence AugSP typology is conceptualized to explain the influences of human enhancement technologies (HETs) within service actor interactions. Originality/value This research introduces the AugSP typology to conceptualize the impacts that exoskeletons and HETs impose within technologically mediated service interactions and provides a service-specific definition of exoskeleton technology to guide future service research involving the technology.

SensAA – Design and Verification of a Cloud-based Wearable Biomechanical Data Acquisition System

“…There are multiple approaches to reduce the impairment of gait disorders. One of them are orthoses and exoskeletons, which can be used to support or even regain the functions of the lower extremities [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. To develop and validate such devices and to adapt them to the user, a long-term gait observation is necessary.…”

SensAA—Design and Verification of a Cloud-Based Wearable Biomechanical Data Acquisition System

“…There are multiple approaches to reduce the impairment of gait disorders. Among them are orthoses and exoskeletons, which can be used to support or even regain lower extremity functions [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. To develop and validate such devices and to adapt them to the user, long-term gait observation is necessary.…”

SensAA – Design and Verification of a Cloud-based Wearable Biomechanical Data Acquisition System

“…There are multiple approaches to reduce the impairment of gait disorders. One of them are orthoses and exoskeletons, which can be used to support or even regain lower extremity functions [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. To develop and validate such devices and to adapt them to the user, long-term gait observation is necessary.…”