| Affiliations: | STEM Research Leadership |
| Project Leader: | Oshin Tyagi oshin_tyagi@tamu.edu Industrial & Systems Engineering |
| Faculty Mentor: | Ranjana Mehta, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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TBD |
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Team Size:
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3
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| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Two conference and two journal papers are expected to come out of this project, if the student shows promise, they will have the opportunity to be co-authors on the journal papers and even present at conferences. Students who show dedication long term can also be considered for a Ph.D position in the Neuroergonomics Lab
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Team Needs:
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Basic knowledge of coding, experience in human subject studies, basic knowledge of statistics preferred but not required |
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Description:
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The demand for shoulder exoskeletons is rapidly increasing in the manufacturing industry as it is seen as an ergonomic intervention tool critical in reducing work-related musculoskeletal injuries in workers involved in repetitive overhead work. While the research evaluating the benefits and limitations of shoulder exoskeletons has not yet caught up to industries’ enthusiasm, the potential of these devices is already being assessed for other sectors. One such sector is healthcare and emergency response, where exoskeletons are particularly being evaluated for patient handling. However, unlike industry, the task requirements for patient handling are seldom repetitive, require a wider range of motion, and require the use of different muscle groups at the same time. While there is extensive research evaluating exoskeletons for static postures or tasks with limited ranges of motion, their benefits or limitations for tasks involving more complex movements and high range of motion are not well investigated. To fill this gap, we propose a study to evaluate the performance of shoulder exoskeletons for tasks specific to patient handling, and compare their benefits for tasks ranging from none, to low, to high ranges of motion. Based on the results from previous studies on low back exoskeletons, we hypothesize that the performance of the exoskeletons will decline with increasing range of motion. Results from this study can help identify the potential limitations of exoskeletons for adoption in other domains like healthcare and emergency response, where the work is seldom static or repetitive |