Preliminary Study on a Novel Protocol for Improving Familiarity with a Lower-Limb Robotic Exoskeleton in Able-Bodied, First-Time Users

Lower-limb exoskeletons have been created for different healthcare needs, but no research has been done on developing a proper protocol for users to get accustomed to moving with one. The user manuals provided also do not include such instructions. A pre-test was conducted with the TWIN (IIT), which is a lower-limb exoskeleton made for persons with spinal cord injury. In the pre-test, two healthy, able-bodied graduate students indicated a need for a protocol that can better prepare able-bodied, first-time users to move with an exoskeleton. TWIN was used in this preliminary study and nine users were divided to receive a tutorial or no tutorial before walking with the exoskeleton. Due to COVID-19 regulations, the study could only be performed with healthy, young-to-middle-aged lab members that do not require walking support. The proposed protocol was evaluated with the System Usability Scale, NASA Raw Task Load Index, and two custom surveys. The members who received the tutorial found it easy to follow and helpful, but the tutorial seemed to come at a price of higher perceived mental and physical demands, which could stem from the longer testing duration and the need to constantly recall and apply the things learned from the tutorial. All results presented are preliminary, and it is recommended to include biomechanical analysis and conduct the experiment with more participants in the future. Nonetheless, this proof-of-concept study lays groundwork for future related studies and the protocol will be adjusted, applied, and validated to patients and geriatric users.

Dampak Beban Kerja Terhadap Tingkat Stres Pada Tenaga Kesehatan Selama Masa Pandemi Covid 19

Tenaga kesehatan memiliki peranan sebagai garda terdepan dalam penanganan kasus terkonfirmasi Covid-19 yang menyebabkan beban kerja meningkat sehingga timbul beban kerja baik fisik maupun mental. Kondisi ini dapat menyebabkan munculnya berbagai respon dari dalam tubuh seperti meningkatnya stress kerja. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui hubungan beban kerja dengan tingkat kerja stress pada tenaga kesehatan. Desain penelitian menggunakan observasional analitik dengan pendekatan cross-sectional study dan pengambilan sampel dengan teknik non-probability dengan pendekatan consecutive sampling dengan jumlah responden sebanyak 84 orang. Alat ukur untuk stres kerja menggunakan kuesioner Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-42 (DASS-42) versi Bahasa Indonesia dan Space Administration Task Load Indeks (NASA-TLX) versi bahasa Indonesia untuk mengukur beban kerja perawat. Data dianalisis menggunakan software statistic dengan jenis uji statistik Chi-Square dengan tingkat kemaknaan a=0,05. Hasil penelitian didapatkan terdapat hubungan antara beban kerja dengan tingkat stres kerja pada tenaga kesehatan dengan nilai p = 0.000 maka diperoleh kesimpulan beban kerja perawat dapat mempengaruhi tingkat stress perawat selama masa pandemi Covid 19 yang dapat digunakan sebagai referensi rumah sakit atau institusi untuk meningkatkan reward bagi tenaga kesehatan selama masa pandemi Covid 19

Mental Workload Analysis Using NASA-TLX Method at Bank XYZ - Medan Balaikota Consumer Loan Unit

All human activities, whether light, medium, or heavy, must have or contain a workload. Basically, every human being has a varied workload capacity, thus it's not inconceivable that the workload experienced by one worker differs from that of another, because there are a variety of elements that influence the difference in workload capacity. Sales and processing teams are under a lot of pressure to meet credit disbursement targets, which puts them under a lot of mental strain. A worker will experience work stress if he is given an excessive workload. When it comes to work, the influence of stress will result in a decline in performance, efficiency, and productivity of the work in question. To address this issue, a study based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) approach will be conducted to measure the mental strain of personnel in the Medan Balaikota consumer loan unit. NASA-TLX is a way for analyzing the mental workload of workers who must do a variety of tasks at work. Mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration dimensions are among the six variables to be measured. Thirty workers of PT Bank XYZ Consumer Loan Unit Medan Balaikota Branch were surveyed. The NASA-TLX survey method is a quantitative descriptive methodology that was utilized to test in this study. According to the findings of the study, the NASA-TLX average score of PT Bank XYZ Consumer Loan Unit Medan Balaikota Branch employees obtained through research had a modest value. The result is a score of 77. Keywords: Mental Workload, NASA-TLX.

Kemandirian belajar, pemanfaatan waktu, dan kondusifitas lingkungan belajar siswa pada proses pembelajaran daring di SMA Laboratorium UM pada masa pandemi Covid-19

Sistem pembelajaran yang diberlakukan pada masa pandemi Covid-19 berubah. Hal ini dilakukan sebagai bentuk adaptasi agar pembelajaran tetap dapat dilaksanakan tanpa membuat kerumunan yang berpotensi memperluas penyebaran virus. Sistem pembelajaran berbasis daring merupakan cara yang dipilih pemerintah. Sebab pembelajaran ini dapat dilaksanakan dari rumah masing-masing. Dalam pembelajaran daring terdapat karakteristik yang berbeda dibandingkan pembelajaran tatap muka, dimana menuntut siswa untuk mengembangkan kemandirian belajar dan memanfaatkan waktu sebaik mungkin untuk melaksanakan pembelajaran juga menyelesaikan beban tugas yang diberikan. Selain itu kondusifitas lingkungan belajar siswa perlu diperhatikan agar siswa dapat fokus ketika mengikuti pembelajaran. Untuk itu, penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode deskriptif kualitatif agar dapat menjelaskan fenomena atau masalah yang ada khususnya di lokasi penelitian yaitu SMA Laboratorium UM. Abstrak The learning system that was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic changed. This is done as a form of adaptation so that learning can still be carried out without making crowds that have the potential to expand the spread of the virus. The online-based learning system is the way the government has chosen. Because this learning can be carried out from their respective homes. In online learning, there are different characteristics compared to face-to-face learning, which requires students to develop independent learning and make the best time management to carry out learning as well as complete the assigned task load. In addition, the conduciveness of the student learning environment needs to be considered so that students can focus when participating in learning. For this reason, this research was conducted with a qualitative descriptive method in order to explain the phenomena or problems that exist, especially at the research location, namely SMA Laboratorium UM.

Assessing Safety Culture and its Relationship with Mental Load and Job Stress in the National Gas Company

Background: Accidents may occur for varying reasons, including unsafe behaviors, which originate from the safety culture of the organization. Job stress and mental load may also be contributory to accidents. This study aimed to assess safety culture and its relationship with mental load and job stress in a national gas company in Iran. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted over a period of one year. This study used the NASA-TLX task load index, a standard questionnaire approved by the American National Institute of Mental Health to measure job stress, and the standard Health and Safety Executive safety culture questionnaire. All personnel was counted, and the total number of employees was 122. Statistical methods of t-test, correlation coefficient, and averaging have been used. Data were collected and analyzed in SPSS software and Microsoft Excel software. Results: The average mental load of employees was 61.51, i.e., moderate level. The average job stress and employee safety culture were 180.43, i.e., high level, and 331.34, i.e., desired level. The mental load was assessed as moderate, safety culture was optimal, and job stress was high. A significant relation was found between safety culture and mental load (correlation coefficient: -0.278; p = 0.03). Besides, the mental load was significantly related to job stress (correlation coefficient=0.293; p = 0.2). Conclusion: Controlling stress and reducing the mental load in sensitive work environments is important and can lead to a higher level of safety culture in the organization.

An Evaluation of Sleepiness, Performance, and Workload Among Operators During a Real-Time Reactive Telerobotic Lunar Mission Simulation

Objective We assessed operator performance during a real-time reactive telerobotic lunar mission simulation to understand how daytime versus nighttime operations might affect sleepiness, performance, and workload. Background Control center operations present factors that can influence sleepiness, neurobehavioral performance, and workload. Each spaceflight mission poses unique challenges that make it difficult to predict how long operators can safely and accurately conduct operations. We aimed to evaluate the performance impact of time-on-task and time-of-day using a simulated telerobotic lunar rover to better inform staffing and scheduling needs for the upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission. Methods We studied seven trained operators in a simulated mission control environment. Operators completed two five-hour simulations in a randomized order, beginning at noon and midnight. Performance was evaluated every 25 minutes using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, Psychomotor Vigilance Task, and NASA Task Load Index. Results Participants rated themselves as sleepier (5.06 ± 2.28) on the midnight compared to the noon simulation (3.12 ± 1.44; p < .001). Reaction time worsened over time during the midnight simulation but did not vary between simulations. Workload was rated higher during the noon (37.93 ± 20.09) compared to the midnight simulation (32.09 ± 21.74; p = .007). Conclusion Our findings suggest that work shifts during future operations should be limited in duration to minimize sleepiness. Our findings also suggest that working during the day, when distractions are present, increases perceived workload. Further research is needed to understand how working consecutive shifts and taking breaks within a shift influence performance.

Teleoperation and Visualization Interfaces for Remote Intervention in Space

Approaches to robotic manufacturing, assembly, and servicing of in-space assets range from autonomous operation to direct teleoperation, with many forms of semi-autonomous teleoperation in between. Because most approaches require one or more human operators at some level, it is important to explore the control and visualization interfaces available to those operators, taking into account the challenges due to significant telemetry time delay. We consider one motivating application of remote teleoperation, which is ground-based control of a robot on-orbit for satellite servicing. This paper presents a model-based architecture that: 1) improves visualization and situation awareness, 2) enables more effective human/robot interaction and control, and 3) detects task failures based on anomalous sensor feedback. We illustrate elements of the architecture by drawing on 10 years of our research in this area. The paper further reports the results of several multi-user experiments to evaluate the model-based architecture, on ground-based test platforms, for satellite servicing tasks subject to round-trip communication latencies of several seconds. The most significant performance gains were obtained by enhancing the operators’ situation awareness via improved visualization and by enabling them to precisely specify intended motion. In contrast, changes to the control interface, including model-mediated control or an immersive 3D environment, often reduced the reported task load but did not significantly improve task performance. Considering the challenges of fully autonomous intervention, we expect that some form of teleoperation will continue to be necessary for robotic in-situ servicing, assembly, and manufacturing tasks for the foreseeable future. We propose that effective teleoperation can be enabled by modeling the remote environment, providing operators with a fused view of the real environment and virtual model, and incorporating interfaces and control strategies that enable interactive planning, precise operation, and prompt detection of errors.

Analisis Beban Kerja dan Perhitungan Waktu Baku dengan Metode Stopwatch Time Study pada Operator SPBU XYZ

Penelitian ini mengidentifikasi beban kerja mental operator SPBU XYZ dengan menggunakan kuesioner National Aeronautic and Space Administration–Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) dan perhitungan tingkat kelelahan kerja untuk menganalisis tingginya beban kerja mental pada operator SPBU. Perhitungan tingkat kelelahan kerja menggunakan metode Subjective Self Rating Test (SSRT) dari kuesioner Industrial Fatigue Research Committee (IFRC). Upaya yang dilakukan untuk menurunkan tingkat beban kerja mental operator, dilakukan dengan menghitung waktu standar dengan menggunakan metode Stopwatch Time Study. Hasil perhitungan beban kerja mental operator SPBU menunjukkan beban kerja mental yang didapatkan operator berlebih dengan total rata-rata sebesar 77,35. Dimana indikator beban kerja mental yang memiliki skor tertinggi yaitu effort, temporal demand, dan physical demand. Dan hasil perhitungan tingkat kelelahan kerja operator 37,75 dengan klasifikasi kelelahan sedang. Setelah dilakukan perhitungan waktu standar, terjadi penyesuaian waktu kerja. Dimana waktu siklus rata-rata kerja sebelumnya 8,24 menit menjadi 12,29 menit. Penyesuaian waktu kerja merupakan persentase penurunan 3 indikator tertinggi beban kerja mental operator. Setalah dilakukan perhitungan untuk menurunkan beban kerja mental, skor akhir yang didapatkan adalah 52,30 dengan klasifikasi beban kerja mental optimal load dan kenaikan persentase utilitas stasiun pengisian bahan bakar sebesar 32%.

An adaptive human sensor framework for human–robot collaboration

Manufacturing challenges are increasing the demands for more agile and dexterous means of production. At the same time, these systems aim to maintain or even increase productivity. The challenges risen from these developments can be tackled through human–robot collaboration (HRC). HRC requires effective task distribution according to each party’s distinctive strengths, which is envisioned to generate synergetic effects. To enable a seamless collaboration, the human and robot require a mutual awareness, which is challenging, due to the human and robot “speaking” different languages as in analogue and digital. This challenge can be addressed by equipping the robot with a model of the human. Despite a range of models being available, data-driven models of the human are still at an early stage. For this purpose, this paper proposes an adaptive human sensor framework, which incorporates objective, subjective, and physiological metrics, as well as associated machine learning. Thus, it is envisioned to adapt to the uniqueness and dynamic nature of human behavior. To test the framework, a validation experiment was performed, including 18 participants, which aims to predict perceived workload during two scenarios, namely a manual and an HRC assembly task. Perceived workloads are described to have a substantial impact on a human operator’s task performance. Throughout the experiment, physiological data from an electroencephalogram (EEG), an electrocardiogram (ECG), and respiration sensor was collected and interpreted. For subjective metrics, the standardized NASA Task Load Index was used. Objective metrics included task completion time and number of errors/assistance requests. Overall, the framework revealed a promising potential towards an adaptive behavior, which is ultimately envisioned to enable a more effective HRC.