Cross-industry standard test method developments: from manufacturing to wearable robots

Manufacturing robotics is moving towards human-robot collaboration with light duty robots being used side by side with workers. Similarly, exoskeletons that are both passive (spring and counterbalance forces) and active (motor forces) are worn by humans and used to move body parts. Exoskeletons are also called `wearable robots' when they are actively controlled using a computer and integrated sensing. Safety standards now allow, through risk assessment, both manufacturing and wearable robots to be used. However, performance standards for both systems are still lacking. Ongoing research to develop standard test methods to assess the performance of manufacturing robots and emergency response robots can inspire similar test methods for exoskeletons. This paper describes recent research on performance standards for manufacturing robots as well as search and rescue robots. It also discusses how the performance of wearable robots could benefit from using the same test methods.