Title: Study on multivariate analysis of anthropometric measures for upper body exoskeletons using archetypal analysis

Authors: Julia Riemer; Sascha Wischniewski

Addresses: Federal Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Friedrich-Henkel-Weg 1-25, 44149 Dortmund, Germany ' Federal Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Friedrich-Henkel-Weg 1-25, 44149 Dortmund, Germany

Abstract: The accurate fit of upper body exoskeletons is of importance for an efficient physical user support. However, there's a lack of multivariate data and adjustment ranges for proper upper body exoskeleton design. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide exoskeleton design-relevant body parameters of men and women as an input to suitable adjustment range for shoulder and back exoskeletons. We identified relevant body parameters for back and shoulder exoskeletons and calculated the upper and lower bounds for males and females by applying the archetypal analysis on a large anthropometric dataset from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Based on the archetypes, we identified minimum and maximum limits. These limits were checked for their accommodation level for the original as well as a weighted dataset, representing data for the whole of Germany. In addition, we compared the results of the limits with one dimensional percentile values. The results showed an accommodation for the identified multivariate limits between 87-94% for the different exoskeleton types and gender groups.

Keywords: upper body; anthropometry; design dimensions; percentiles; archetypal analysis; ergonomic; data set; measures; minimum and maximum limits.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFMS.2022.124309

International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation, 2022 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.262 - 274

Received: 21 Oct 2021
Received in revised form: 16 Mar 2022
Accepted: 26 Apr 2022
Published online: 21 Jul 2022 *