When a few workers at Ford鈥檚 assembly plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, started wearing exoskeletons for the first time, people made fun of them. Calls of 鈥淗ey, Iron Man!鈥� rang across the factory line. Putting one on, I understand the comments聽鈥� I feel and look a bit like a superhero.
The inside of the assembly plant is like the inside of a clock, full of moving parts that all work together. Cars wind their way through the huge building with their tyres at eye level, and workers stand beneath them, attaching bits of plastic and securing screws and bolts.
As workers are reaching up a聽lot,聽they are prone to shoulder injuries. This is the most common medical problem for those working at the Ford factory, says Marty Smets, the company鈥檚 head of manufacturing ergonomics.
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The EksoVest, a wearable support system designed by Ford聽and the California-based exoskeleton firm Ekso Bionics, is聽designed to prevent these problems. It uses compressed springs to support the arms when聽they are overhead, diverting weight to the larger muscles lower in the body. It has been rolled out in 17 factories in eight countries so聽far. At about $6000 apiece, the聽vests are much less expensive than treatments for shoulder injuries, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Because each factory tends to聽make more than one type of car聽鈥� the plant in Flat Rock puts together both Mustangs and Lincoln Continentals 鈥� and lots of the tasks involved require human judgement and expertise, the workers can鈥檛 simply be replaced with robots, says Smets. The vest is the next best thing.
Trying it on
Wearing the EksoVest feels halfway between carrying a large backpack and putting on a climbing harness. There are lots of聽straps: a thick support strap around the hips, a chest buckle, a聽forearm sleeve and a biceps cuff with two magnetic buckles. All this serves to hold up a device that looks like a folded bicycle, with bars connecting to the arms acting as the main support. The聽whole thing weighs about 4聽kilograms.
At the shoulder is a compressed spring that powers the whole suit. Pull a small strap and the spring releases, making it feel like raising my arms is easier than keeping them at my sides.
It wasn鈥檛 immediately comfortable. I couldn鈥檛 reach my聽back pockets or scratch my shoulder, for example. But it got easier as I moved around. Within a聽few minutes, I was resting my arms at shoulder level, like a child sidled up to a kitchen counter.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like breaking in a new pair聽of work boots,鈥� says Bruce Watkins, who was one of the first workers to try the EksoVest in 2017 and now wears it almost every day. 鈥淲hen I first tried it on, it felt awkward, but now it鈥檚 like an extension of me.鈥� Moving around the line, he looked completely natural in the exoskeleton.
It is easy to see how physically strenuous the work would be without it. The suit provides about 2 to 7 kilograms of lift assistance per arm. That may not feel like much, and I was initially disappointed that it wouldn鈥檛 let聽me pick up a car, but some workers on the line lift tools above聽their heads thousands of times every day. If Watkins does 6000 arm lifts, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 saving him more than 20 Mustangs鈥� worth of聽weight a day鈥�, says Smets.
There haven鈥檛 yet been any long-term studies about whether the suit lowers injury rates, so it鈥檚 not yet clear how effective it is, but feedback from workers has been positive. 鈥淏efore I started wearing it, I was always really sore at the end of the day,鈥� says Watkins. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 nothing.鈥�
Another early EksoVest adopter, Nick Gotts, says that on shifts that can be nearly 11 hours long it makes a big difference, especially in the last hour. He wishes there was a version for legs, too.
Smets and his team are working on developing and testing other types of exoskeletons to assist with jobs elsewhere on the production line, like those where workers have to be bent over most of the day, reaching to attach parts to the inside of cars.
The field is advancing fast, says Smets. 鈥淭his is what they look like now聽鈥� who knows what they鈥檒l look like in two years?鈥�
My experience at Ford hints at聽what the future of factories may聽be like. Robots will surely take over many tasks, but for those that still need a human eye, technology can help enhance their performance, with exoskeletons being a part of it. Jobs for superheroes are safe, for聽now at least.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淓xoskeletons for making Mustangs鈥�
