@inproceedings{0064e45251634f389a2ef33199613e32,
title = "Exoskeletons in the supermarket: Influences of comfort, strain relief and task-technology fit on retail workers' post-trial intention to use",
abstract = "Many supermarket employees, such as shelf and warehouse workers, suffer from musculoskeletal disorders. Exoskeletons, that is, physical assistance systems that are worn on the body, could help. The conditions under which workers would be willing to use this new wearable technology, however, remain largely unclear. In this exploratory field study, 58 supermarket employees tested one or more out of five passive exoskeletons during their regular work. Perceived wearing comfort, extent of strain relief, and task-technology fit (i.e., how well the exoskeleton fit their current task requirements) were found to correlate significantly with post-trial intention to use. Soft exoskeletons were rated as preferable to rigid ones. Trying one of the latter also resulted in lower intention to use, which was revealed to be fully mediated by a better task-technology fit being ascribed to soft exoskeletons. Practical relevance of the results, study limitations and future research directions are discussed.",
keywords = "Comfort, Field study, Intention to use, Passive exoskeletons, Retail industry, Strain relief, Task-technology fit, Technology acceptance, Wearables",
author = "Siedl, {Sandra Maria} and Matthias Wolf and Martina Mara",
note = "Funding Information: We thank the retail company and its supermarket workers for taking part in our study. This research was supported by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 ACM.; 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, HRI 2021 ; Conference date: 08-03-2021 Through 11-03-2021",
year = "2021",
month = mar,
day = "8",
doi = "10.1145/3434074.3447200",
language = "English",
series = "ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction",
publisher = "IEEE Computer Society",
pages = "397--401",
booktitle = "HRI 2021 - Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction",
address = "United States",
}