WearaCob: A Unified Bidirectional Framework for Adaptive Synergy Between Wearable and Collaborative Robotics
Sandro Ferrari, Ivan Terrile, Francesco Missiroli, Federico Masiero, Maura Casadio, Lorenzo Masia
Abstract
The advent of Human-Robot Collaboration has redefined industrial automation by reestablishing the human operator as a central agent in shared workspaces. While collaborative robots (cobots) enable safe and intuitive interaction, the parallel rise of wearable assistive devices, such as occupational exoskeletons, addresses growing concerns over operator fatigue and musculoskeletal strain. This paper presents <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">WearaCob</i>, an integrated system combining a vision-enhanced bimanual elbow soft exoskeleton with an industrial cobot to enable synergistic, user-adaptive collaboration. The system fosters bidirectional adaptation: the exoskeleton modulates its assistance in real time based on external load data communicated by the cobot, while the cobot tailors object handovers using user localization and anthropometric information from the exoskeleton. In a simulated logistics scenario, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">WearaCob</i> demonstrated precise and robust handover execution, while maintaining consistent muscular effort across increasing loads, achieving up to 65% reduction in biceps activation compared to the exoskeleton alone without bidirectional communication with the cobot. These findings highlight <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">WearaCob</i>'s potential to enhance the efficiency, safety, and adaptability of human-robot collaboration, marking a step toward a new era of assistive industrial automation.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2026_wearacobaunified,
title = {WearaCob: A Unified Bidirectional Framework for Adaptive Synergy Between Wearable and Collaborative Robotics},
author = {Sandro Ferrari and Ivan Terrile and Francesco Missiroli and Federico Masiero and Maura Casadio and Lorenzo Masia},
booktitle = {RA-L 2026},
year = {2026}
}