Neuroergonomy is a field of study in which disciplinary contributions help to make people's work better and safer by integrating to increase the possibility of knowledge and application.
Neuroscience has long been approached by ergonomics scholars to integrate and make support tools more effective for the benefit of physical and mental activities.
However, this is an integration that is still largely to be verified and built because if on the side of physical activities there has been a significant encounter on applications such as exoskeletons that mainly concern biomechanical aspects also from the point of view of the psychophysiological aspects integration possibilities could be many and very significant applications in other aspects of life and work interesting for well-being and safety.
In fact, in addition to improving psychophysical well-being in all human activities, ergonomics promotes interdisciplinarity and therefore the ability to bring together different science principles and methods, finalizing them for a well-being objective that concerns the development of a more aware and safe society .
This ability supports the objective of this research which, also on the basis of the skills and studies already carried out by the partners, can consolidate the presence of biomechanical elements and aspects in the users centered design of support systems such as exoskeletons (tested in the INAIL Lab) derived from neuroscience. It can be equally effective to verify the possibility of integrating psychophysiological skills and neuroscience with applications useful for well-being. Furthermore, there are interesting studies and experiments in this sector which the ergonomic approach and its participation-based cognitive method can surely be useful for.
There are several reasons that can justify the current state of the art on the use of occupational exoskeletons in the work place: owing to technical issues, active exoskeletons have little practical relevance, and some passive exoskeletons, already commercially available, are limited to relieve only some parts of the body, and the assistance during heavy lifting tasks is restricted.
In addition to technical and performance problems, there are also issues related to ergonomics aspect related to the user requirements.
On the one hand, perceiving the device as a foreign reality with little or no integration with the human operator. On the other, a basic skepticism also dictated by an no in-depth knowledge of these systems and therefore by the doubts that may arise regarding their use, in particular as regards the real advantages to prevent of WRMSDs compared to the current ergonomics disadvantages that could result from their adoption.
Innovativity
The new aspects are above all:
improve negative aspects of manual work with technologically advanced tools designed for people and with people
improve the negative effects of work on the psychosomatic and overall health system of people with skills aimed at controlling well-being and psychophysical balance. These skills could be the basis of really useful applications for health control at different levels (in presence and remotely