ASTM F3584-22

SIGNIFICANCE AND USE 5.1 Obstacles can vary greatly in, for example: length, width, height, quantity, geometry, and for a variety of industries. Fig. 2 shows examples of various obstacles. FIG. 2 Example Obstacles in: (a) Road Construction; (b) Warehouse; (c) Manufacturing: Floor; (d) Manufacturing: Overhead; (e) Military Obstacle Course 5.2 Exoskeletons are being used in the industrial/occupational, military, response, medical, and recreational sectors to enhance safety and effectiveness of the user to perform tasks. Many tasks involve avoiding obstacles, and may include for example, upper, lower, or full body movement in order to complete the task. As there are infinite obstacles and ways that obstacle courses can be designed, this test method addresses obstacle avoidance while walking through a standard set of obstacles. Dependent upon the task, it may require people to traverse various environmental conditions (for example, ground) and avoid obstacles while wearing an exoskeleton. For example, an exoskeleton may be used to help during construction or in medical facilities where workers in exoskeletons avoid obstacles with and without carrying loads as part of their daily activities. In military, manufacturing, and response areas, exoskeleton users may for example, step over or under, side-step between, or walk around obstacles, or combinations thereof, to perform the task at hand. Variations to obstacle avoidance may include, for example, increased user speed/momentum, load handling, and distractions that may change user performance when avoiding obstacles. The testing results of exoskeletons shall describe, in a statistically significant way (see guidance in Appendix X1), how reliably the exoskeleton is able to support tasks within the specified types of environments, confinements, and terrains, and thus provide sufficiently high levels of confidence to determine the applicability of the exoskeleton. 5.3 This test method addresses exoskeleton safety and performance require... SCOPE 1.1 Purpose: 1.1.1 The purpose of this test method, as a part of a suite of exoskeleton use test methods, is to quantitatively evaluate an exoskeleton’s (see Terminology F3323) safety (see 1.4) or performance, or both, when avoiding obstacles. 1.1.2 Exoskeletons shall possess a certain set of allowable exoskeleton user movement capabilities, including user-motion adaptability, to suit operations such as: industrial/occupational, military, response, medical, or recreational. 1.1.3 Environments in these typical sectors often pose constraints to exoskeleton user movement to various degrees. Being able to avoid obstacles while walking, as intended by the user or test requestor, while using an exoskeleton is essential for exoskeleton deployment for a variety of tasks (for example, ascending/descending stairs, crossing gaps and hurdles, balancing on a beam). This test method specifies test setup, procedure, and recording to standardize this obstacle avoidance task for testing exoskeleton user movement. 1.1.4 Exoskeletons need to function as intended, regardless of types of tasks and terrain complexities (for example, carpet, metal, masonry, rock, wood). Required movement capabilities may include, for example: walking, running, crawling, climbing; traversing gaps, hurdles, stairs, slopes; avoiding obstacles, on various types of floor surfaces or terrains, or within confined spaces, or combinations thereof. Standard test methods are required to evaluate whether or not exoskeletons meet these requirements while also allowing test repeatability. 1.1.5 ASTM Subcommittee F48.03 develops and maintains international standards for task performance and environmental considerations that include but are not limited to, standards for safety, quality, and efficiency. This subcommittee aims to develop standards for any exoskeleton application as exemplified as in 1.1.2. The F48.03 test suite consists of a set of test methods ...