Page - 144 - in Intelligent Environments 2019 - Workshop Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Intelligent Environments

such as edge computing and 5G connection that will improve the speed of telecommunication and improvement of sensing technologies, such wearable robots are expected to advance further as an Internet of Things/ Internet of Humans (IoH/IoT) device. For example, the future of the wearable robots for reduction of workload(“Assist Suits”) could be installed with functions to gather vital information of the wearer or his/her surrounding environment, which could be used to prevent heatstroke. It may also be installed with a function that could gather information related to the wearer’s work to improve his/her productivity. Assist suit has the potential to be used as a device to directly reduce the workload and also as an IoH/IoT device that could gather various information related to the wearer and his/her surroundings. In this research, the effectiveness of the proposed device on the reduction of the workload will be explored and ways to further reduce the workload will be considered. Work-related accidents in the lower back are becoming a growing concern in workplaces where heavy lifting is involved. [1] To overcome this need to reduce the stress applied to the back part, assist suits such as HAL Lumbar Type for Labor Support (CYBERDYNE, INC.) are being developed and it is being adopted in some workplaces as one of the solutions. Most of the Assist Suits are focused on the reduction of stress applied to the back parts, however, there are not so many that looks at the need of reducing the stress on the knee joint. In care facilities, there is a lot of care workers being forced to work with back pain, and one of the widely adopted methods to overcome this is to avoid using the flexion in the back as much as they can by replacing it with the fuse of the knee. [2] There are research results related to this method suggesting that increasing the contribution from the lower limb could reduce the stress on the back [3] . Research suggests that slouch lifting is 23 %~24 % more efficient compared to squat lifting in terms of metabolism. [4] Although squat lifting applies less stress on the back, the overall workload for the workers will increase through squat lifting. In warehouses and factories, methods to avoid flexion of the back and to flex the knees instead is recommended, [5] and the movement has become a common practice in those places. For those workplaces, assistance towards the knee in addition to the back should be considered. Other research suggests that upon transporting a heavyweight, most stresses are applied on the upper arm over other body parts including the lower limb. [6] In addition, a trolley is often used for transportation tasks, which reduces the workload significantly. As such, in terms of stress applied to the knee joint, there is more stress applied in the tasks related to lifting and lowering in comparison to transporting. So for this research, the investigation on assistance in transportation tasks was excluded from the scope. There are researches on the wearable system in the lower limb or spring equipped system to assist standing to reduce the stress applied on the knee. [2][7] However, there was no research that focused on the reduction of stress applied on the knee using a system attached on the hip and strength of assistance level to maximize the effect. 1.2 Aim of the research In this research, the designing of a telescopic device that is effective for supporting heavy lifting will be examined. The contribution of the device on the reduction of the stress applied to the knee and overall workload will also be considered. In addition, using the ability of the Assist Suits to gather vital information of the wearer, an indicator that could suggest the fatigue of the worker will also be researched. T.Nakazawaetal. /Advancementof IoH/IoT“Assist Suits” toSupportWorkplaces144