The Project



What can we do?
Why

Acceptability and validation
The ergoCub project develops wearable technologies and humanoid robots while considering their acceptability, with the aim of reducing the number of musculoskeletal diseases related to biomechanical risk in future workers.
The adoption of new technologies represents an unprecedented opportunity to redefine the underlying theory and processes for biomechanical risk prevention. To achieve this redefinition process, the project validates the technologies in specific experimental fields, ultimately aiming to establish a spinoff that can transfer and distribute the technologies developed by the ergoCub project to the productive fabric and workplaces.
Acceptability survey






Twin Laboratories
To enable valid experimentation of the developed technologies, two new laboratories have been established during the ergoCub project: one in Genoa and one in Monte Porzio Catone (RM).
These laboratories are designed as controlled environments to test the developed technologies and verify their effectiveness under conditions similar to those of high-risk workplaces. In particular, the validation scenarios include an exemplification of a scenario where continuous and repetitive load handling is necessary in an industrial context and another exemplification of patient handling in a hospital scenario.


Collaboration with The Italian Multiple Sclerosis Society
The aims of this study are to examine the capabilities of the quantitative measures derived from iFeel technology and test its usability on a sample of patients with Multiple Sclerosis.
Gait and balance impairment are the most troublesome motor symptoms preventing people from correctly and easily performing daily living activities, with negative effects on working status and social relationships.
Since characteristics of Multiple Sclerosis symptoms may rapidly vary, wearables providing precise, reliable, and valid measures can be the main candidate for balance and mobility assessment.



Experiments in Rome Airport
The wearable technology developed by the ergoCub project has been validated in a real workplace scenario at Aeroporti di Roma. These preliminary experiments allowed the definition and submission of an experimental protocol to the ethics committee to validate the developed technology within real contexts with workers from the manufacturing sector.
The goal is to evaluate both the effectiveness of monitoring and preventing workers' biomechanical risk and the suitability and usability of the technologies by the target users.
CE Certifications
The ergoCub project has made significant strides towards the certification of the developed technologies: the wearable technology, for example, has undergone the necessary pre-compliance tests for CE certification, and the sensorized shoes have undergone the necessary tests to initiate the medical certification process.
However, the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private non-profit foundation, which prevents the sale of the technology developed in the ergoCub project to national and international organizations interested in it.
For this reason, the ergoCub project is working towards establishing a spinoff named iFeel, which can facilitate technology transfer from research institutes such as IIT and INAIL to workplaces, as the spinoff is entitled to sell and distribute technologies transferred from the ergoCub project.


