Operators in Process Industry: Interaction with Wearable Computers

Field operators need access to and interaction with more information than is available today during field operations. Wearable computers can provide relevant information with hands-free interaction techniques to support work tasks in the field. Potential implications of introducing wearable computers are collaboration, information overload, situation awareness and social relationships. Interaction techniques between humans are natural and well known and include voice, gestures, eye movements and biopotentials. Voice is a promising interaction technique for wearable computers, assuming improvements for rough and noisy environments. Wearable computers may change the roles and responsibilities while providing extended support for communication and collaboration. Field operators will be better prepared to prevent failures and secure quality. Control room operators will perform more administrative and management tasks. Correspondence and offprint requests to: C. Skourup, ABB AS, Corporate Research Center, Bergerveien 12, PO Box 90, N-1375 Billingstad, Norway. Email: charlotte.skourup@no.abb.com     

Measuring human–robot interaction on wearable robots: A distributed approach

This paper presents a novel, distributed approach to monitor physical interaction between a user and a wearable robot. We propose to apply a matrix of optoelectronic sensors embedded in a thin and compliant silicone bulk onto the user-robot contact surface. This distributed tactile sensor can measure the pressure distribution on the interaction area without affecting the comfort of the user, and does not require the robot to be specifically designed to house it. Besides the estimation of the interaction force/torque, the distributed approach allows to monitor the pressure on the user’s skin. This information is fundamental to assess the comfort and safety of the users which determine the final acceptability of the robot-mediated rehabilitation. The proposed method is preliminary evaluated on an elbow active orthosis during a repetitive rehabilitation task. Experimental results prove the relevance of this approach for the detection of the user motion intention through a measurement of the interaction force distribution.     

Bionic-leaf vein inspired breathable anti-impact wearable electronics with health monitoring,electromagnetic interference shielding and thermal management

Breathable and stretchable conductive materials are ideal for healthcare wearable electronic devices.However,the tradeoff between the sensitivity and detection range of electronic sensors and the chal-lenge posed by simple-functional electronics limits their development.Here,inspired by the bionic-leaf vein conductive path,silver nanowires(AgNWs)-Ti3C2Tx(MXene)hybrid structure assembled on the non-woven fabrics(NWF)is well sandwiched between porous polyborosiloxane elastomer(PBSE)to construct the multifunctional breathable wearable electronics with both high anti-impact performance and good sensing behavior.Benefiting from the high conductive AgNWs-MXene hybrid structure,the NWF/AgNWs-MXene/PBSE nanocomposite exhibits high sensitivity(GF=1158.1),wide monitoring range(57％),con-trollable thermal management properties,and excellent electromagnetic interference shielding effect(SET=41.46 dB).Moreover,owing to the wonderful shear stiffening effect of PBSE,the NWF/AgNWs-MXene/PBSE possesses a high energy absorption performance.Combining with deep learning,this breath-able electronic device can be further applied to wireless sensing gloves and multifunctional medical belts,which will drive the development of electronic skin,human-machine interaction,and personalized healthcare monitoring applications.