September 12, 2023
Back to Basics: Wearables, Robotics, and Exoskeletons
New technologies such as wearables, robotics, and exoskeletons will likely have a huge effect on the work being done by EHS professionals. During the National Safety Council’s 2023 Workplace Safety Summit in June, Dr. John Howard, the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) spoke about sensors, robots, and exoskeletons, and how to introduce wearables into the workplace.
Wearable sensors
Howard stated that according to the theory of robotics, robots process information by first sensing, using data inputs from sensors, then thinking, using artificial intelligence, and then acting. There are two types of robots: steel-collar, which are physical devices, and white-collar, which are software programs like Alexa. According to data from the international Federation of Robotics, approximately 49,000 industrial