Abstract
The significance of occupational exoskeletons is increasing, offering relief and improving well-being for physically demanding tasks. Existing adoption frame-works reveal crucial factors for development (like wearing comfort and task fit) and implementation (such as familiarization time and organizational perspective). How-ever, physical aspects are addressed primarily through ergonomics. As exoskeleton technology inherently involves the body, the user's perception and experience are tied to bodily experiences. Further research is needed to understand the human-exo-skeleton interaction comprehensively and explore how the user experience unfolds and how the exoskeleton's and user's characteristics influence each other. Our con-tribution, a conceptual framework leveraging established frameworks of user experi-ence and the concept of body experience, addresses this gap by contextualizing the body within the exoskeleton research. We examine the nuanced dynamics of the un-folding human-exoskeleton experience and how its various aspects entangle them-selves around the user's corporeality, affecting the users' relationship with their bod-ies and self-perception.
Keywords
user experience; embodied experience; wearable technology; exoskeletons
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1015
Citation
Papp-Schmitt, E., Wölfel, C., and Krzywinski, J. (2024) Embodied experience of exoskeletons, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1015
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Embodied experience of exoskeletons
The significance of occupational exoskeletons is increasing, offering relief and improving well-being for physically demanding tasks. Existing adoption frame-works reveal crucial factors for development (like wearing comfort and task fit) and implementation (such as familiarization time and organizational perspective). How-ever, physical aspects are addressed primarily through ergonomics. As exoskeleton technology inherently involves the body, the user's perception and experience are tied to bodily experiences. Further research is needed to understand the human-exo-skeleton interaction comprehensively and explore how the user experience unfolds and how the exoskeleton's and user's characteristics influence each other. Our con-tribution, a conceptual framework leveraging established frameworks of user experi-ence and the concept of body experience, addresses this gap by contextualizing the body within the exoskeleton research. We examine the nuanced dynamics of the un-folding human-exoskeleton experience and how its various aspects entangle them-selves around the user's corporeality, affecting the users' relationship with their bod-ies and self-perception.