Today in the headquarters of Palazzo Rosciano of the Supervisory Authority Port System of the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea have been the results of the project were illustrated to test the usefulness of the passive exoskeleton devices in assisting workers with the aim of reducing physical efforts at the lumbar level and at the level of the upper limbs, with particular reference to the shoulders. The project involved three years of experimentation in collaboration with the Livorno Port Company (CPL).

The final study, entrusted by the Livorno Port Authority to IUVO Srl, a spin-off company of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa), developer of the MATE exoskeleton technology, produced by COMAU, a world leader in the field of industrial innovation, has given an extremely positive feedback. The exoskeletons tested in the first phase of the analysis were of two types: the MATE-XB (for lumbar support), used in simulation scenarios of lifting and handling activities Fruit crates, actions with a high risk of overload biomechanical typically carried out at the Livorno Reefer Terminal; i MATE-XT (for upper limb support), which have been tested at the Darsena Toscana Terminal with the aim of support the handling of long rods and of plates for fixing containers on board and on the quay carried out by the workers of the Port Company. In both the equipment has proved to be extremely effective: it is It has been shown that the MATE XB has led to an average reduction in of the activity of the erector muscles of the back up to 25%, while the MATE XT reduced the activity of the levator muscles of the shoulder up to 35%.

In the second phase, testing activities were conducted by port workers during the performance of the work activities to assess their effectiveness in the field and Check for interference. The results of this phase confirmed the evidence previously collected with reductions in of the perceived effort by workers up to 50%, demonstrating its strong positive impact on the physical of workers deriving from their use.

On the occasion of today's presentation of the results of the project, on board the Grimaldi ship ECO Valencia is A demonstration application of an exoskeleton was carried out used by a worker of the Company for the lashing and unlashing a trailer.

"I believe - commented the president of the CPL, Enzo Raugei - it is a great thing to have on our side the possibility to use a device based on modern technology whose objective is to reduce the risk of contracting with chronic disabling occupational diseases. For this reason, reason, we immediately made ourselves available for the first phase of experimentation and, currently, also in the second phase, which provides for the purchase and use of devices, underlining the primacy of of the Livorno Company in the use of exoskeletons in the port sector".

"As we have always maintained - recalled the president of the Port System Authority, Davide Gariglio - one of the key objectives of the Port Authority, implicitly indicated in Article 6 of Law 84/94, is to safeguard employment levels in the port, at the same time increasingly high quality standards. The port - he underlined - it is not only made up of trafficking and infrastructures but above all of people, and every conquest made in the field of social welfare is worth more to us than any other what".