DBpia

This study investigated the current state of various wearable robot technology companies to collect basic data to develop clothing suitable for wearable robots. The companies were examined country-wise and classified by their field of application. Furthermore, body mapping was performed on the human contact areas of the wearable robots according to the field of application. The results showed that most wearable robot technology companies are situated in Europe, Asia, and North America. Classifying wearable robots by the field of application yielded that 50.0%(N=39) were applicable for rehabilitation/healthcare, 37.2% (N=29) for industrial use, 10.3% (N=8) for military, and 2.6%(N=2) for sports. The body mapping showed that the contact areas of the rehabilitation/healthcare products could be classified as hand, arm, upper body, lower body, foot, and whole body. These types of products have the most diverse categories of contact areas among all the product categories. Industrial products were classified into waist, upper body, lower body, and whole body; their distinctive feature is that the corresponding wearable robots assist only the waist area. Military products were designed to cover the whole body for protection. Sports products were produced for the lower body only.