Rubicon Global Partners with Georgia Tech to Create Exoskeleton for Waste Collectors

Atlanta-based Rubicon Global, an international cloud-based, full-service waste and recycling company focused on sustainability, is partnering with Georgia Tech to develop an exoskeleton for waste collection workers. The exoskeleton, which could potentially improve the health and safety of collection workers, will be constructed via musculoskeletal modeling.

During the first phase of the project, Dr. Aaron Young and engineers of Georgia Tech’s Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls Lab will analyze the biometrics of Rubicon’s workers and then design a prototype exoskeleton that suits their needs and helps relieve stress from their joints.

Atlanta Inno has more details:

Rubicon Global and Georgia Tech are banding together to develop an exoskeleton that will improve the health of waste slingers, one of the most taxing labor jobs in the country.

The “Uber for recycling” partnered with ramblin wreck engineers in the Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab led by Dr. Aaron Young to first overhaul a human subject study of waste slingers in Atlanta. Results of the study will determine how Tech engineers will develop a supportive exoskeleton technology through musculoskeletal modeling, which involves analyzing the dynamics of the muscle and bone within the body.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a research sector of the National Institutes of Health, garbage collection is one of the most hazardous jobs. Waste slingers are subjected to increased muscle and joint injuries because of the laborious nature of the job, Rubicon Global’s Chief Technology Officer Phil Rodoni said.

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