An In-Field Evaluation of Forearm Muscle Activity During a Manual Weld Task While Using a Soft Hand Exoskeleton

Occupational ApplicationWearing the IronHand® resulted in minor, if any, reductions in muscle activity during a welding task. While the intervention was not beneficial, the task was already deemed acceptable using APDFs and remained so while the device was worn. There were minor differences between the participants' benefits and experience, reaffirming that not all individuals will respond the same way to interventions using exoskeletons. Devices that provide assistive forces at the hand may not be as effective as those targeting the shoulder and back. More work is needed to evaluate how force is distributed across the hand during occupational tasks to apply the correct assistive forces.