HeroWear, the Apex 2 exosuit maker, released injury and incident data collected over one-quarter million work hours across multiple customer sites. The results are a staggering reduction in back injuries from an expected 10.5 based on previous incident reports to zero. This is a major change from talking about pilot studies or work sites that are just now beginning to implement exoskeletons, exosuits, or wearable robotics. Instead, it focuses on an agglomerated data set of significant size.
The company looked at injury data from 280,00 work hours from distribution centers around the United States. The employees were using the Apex 2 exosuit. Reportedly, this equates to 140 full-time employees, for one year, working with the exo and executing an estimated 50-60 million lifts.
The declared results are nothing short of impressive:
- Zero back injuries were reported by workers wearing the Apex 2.
- Reported a 25% decrease in work-related body discomfort/aches.
- An additional 20% drop in reported discomfort in work-related fatigue.
“These are exciting results for companies looking to reduce injury risk for their workers. Our clients are committed to both protecting their people and saving healthcare costs,” says HeroWear Chief Executive Officer, Mark Harris. “We are encouraged to see our users are not just safer at work, but their quality of life is improving. Users report they are less sore at work and less tired at the end of the day, with many describing that they are using this additional energy to spend more
time doing things they love.”
This is not an academic study, and the results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. However, that is not uncommon. It can take years for a paper to go through the steps of review and publishing. For example, this month, a research paper was published on medical exoskeleton use that started data gathering in 2016—eight (8) years ago! I have been part of conversations with other exo companies emphasizing the need to report data quickly. Therefore, just because this data does not come from a published research paper, it should not be automatically dismissed.
The community has been clamoring for longitudinal data on the effectiveness of occupational exoskeletons and exosuits. The lack of such data has been cited countless times during conferences and webinars as an obstacle to mass implementation.
“People have been asking for longitudinal data on exosuits for years, so we were excited to gather and share this injury data reported by clients,” says Dr. Karl Zelik, HeroWear co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer. “These and other clients seeing success are expanding and rolling out exosuits with more workers and at additional sites. We are very data-centric and plan to keep collecting data for millions of hours. We will keep learning, sharing, and focusing on how exosuits impact
injury rates over time, across different sites, and industries. So far, results have been outstanding, and we’re thrilled this technology can help people do their jobs safely and without sacrificing their bodies.”
Read the full press release on the HeroWear website: Distribution Centers Track Exosuit Users for 281k Hours, Report Zero Back Injuries
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