Webinar
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Class description
Join the live virtual 75 minutes Grand Rounds session via Zoom.
Note: this lecture will only be available to registrants as a live webcast. Live attendance is expected and a recording of this program will not be made publicly available.
OEM Grand Rounds April 9, 2025, 6:45-8:00pm Pacific Time
TOPIC: Research to Practice in the Development of Exoskeleton Guidelines
Presenter: Carisa Harris-Adamson, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco
Agenda: all times in Pacific Time
6:45 pm Lecture
7:45 pm Q&A
8:00 pm Adjourn
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Session Information
Construction workers have a higher incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the shoulder than most other industry sectors. Arm support exoskeletons (ASEs) have been proposed as one approach to augment a worker’s capacity to meet the high physical demands of a task. This five-year project used a mixed methods approach to first determine the facilitators and barriers of ASE use among construction workers, then addressed those concerns in a variety of laboratory studies. The development of algorithms to predict fit and normalize the support level of ASEs based on a worker’s sex, height, and weight was developed and used for three laboratory studies. The first evaluated common safety, such as the impact of ASEs on balance, maneuverability, ambulation, and climbing. The second study evaluated optimal torque settings when performing a common drilling task overhead and on a wall for two minutes at varying levels of support, normalized to each worker, where 100% support floated the arm when flexed at 90° of elbow and shoulder flexion. Next, optimal support torque was evaluated during three common construction tasks, including wire stapling, surface grinding, and drywall installation. General findings from each study were summarized into application guidelines which were evaluated in the field. An overview of this project and its primary findings will be provided and an introduction to the next five-year field study will be presented.
Carisa Harris, PhD, CPE is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. She is the Director of the Northern California Center of Occupational and Environmental Health in the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley and the Director of the UCSF/UCB Ergonomics Research & Graduate Training Program. She received her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley and teaches a variety of classes including Occupational Biomechanics and Industrial Engineering Human Factors Design.
This lecture is part of the OEM Grand Rounds Lecture Series. For more about the series and registration for the discounted lecture package, visit the package registration page.
ACCREDITATION
Continuing education for this activity is pending. See final announcement for details.