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Comau’s MATE-XT exoskeleton has a breathable, ergonomic design and is figure like a backpack. | Supply: Comau

John Deere workers now have entry to a number of Comau MATE-XT exoskeletons. The units purpose to maintain employee well-being, alleviate bodily stress and cut back ergonomic threat inside its elements logistics operations.

The MATE-XT exoskeleton, which is worn like a backpack, can precisely replicate all actions of the shoulder, serving to workers carry out their jobs comfortably by lowering muscle fatigue with out limiting mobility or including bulk. For John Deere workers, this implies serving to them transfer a whole lot of packages a day to make sure elements are prepared for next-day supply.

Comau’s exoskeleton is economically designed and might be simply adjusted to suit completely different folks with completely different physique sorts. The size of the ought to straps and the required degree of help primarily based on the employee or the job at hand, for instance, might be adjusted as wanted.

The exoskeleton is Ergonomic Evaluation Work-Sheet (EAWS) licensed, which allows John Deere to amass an object measurement of ergonomic enchancment and projected advantages when it comes to decreased muscle fatigue and execution speeds.

Comau offered hands-on coaching for utilizing the units at John Deere’s 75,000 square-meter elements distribution middle in Campinas, within the state of São Paulo, Brazil. 

“Our efforts to offer clients with progressive automation applied sciences extends to discovering new methods to make sure their employees keep protected throughout their day-to-day actions, in several purposes and markets,” Laerte Scarpitta, Comau Chief for the Americas, mentioned. “MATE-XT is an easy-to-use wearable exoskeleton that enables John Deere to offer larger added worth and measurable advantages when it comes to lowering perceived muscle fatigue and as a consequence, the mechanical stress on a employee’s again, lumbar area, arms and shoulders. It’s yet one more instance of the worth that robotics can deliver.”

To quantify the advantages of utilizing MATE-XT, Comau carried out an electromyographic evaluation of the ergonomic threat issue with and with out the exoskeleton. The corporate discovered that MATE-XT stored the muscle at a resting stage for 98.5% of the exercise time, in comparison with solely 2.4% of the time with out the exoskeleton.

Along with permitting employees’ muscle tissue to relaxation extra usually throughout work, MATE-XT additionally ensures correct muscular steadiness whereas optimizing the vitality expenditure wanted to stabilize and maintain the burden of the arm. Whereas sporting the exoskeleton, arm stability might be maintained utilizing solely 10% of the operator’s most for capability.

Comau relies in Turin, Italy and was based in 1973. Earlier this month, it introduced it has been creating a cellular manipulator that’s being utilized inside three completely different EU initiatives. The corporate’s Cellular Robotic Arm entails a robotic arm mounted on an autonomous cellular platform.

John Deere not too long ago gave The Robotic Report an inside have a look at the present state of its agrobotics expertise an in-field demos at a take a look at farm it operates close to Austin, Texas.