Lowe’s is testing four wearable lift-assist suits with the stocking team at its Christiansburg, Virginia, store, aiming to ease the repeated lifting involved in moving merchandise. The retailer and Virginia Tech described the pilot on May 15, 2017. It puts the equipment into a working store, but the partners still plan to assess its physical effects and employees’ experience of wearing it. [S1][S2]

The suit stores energy as a worker bends and returns it as the worker stands. Lowe’s says carbon fiber in the legs and back supplies that assistance, with the aim of reducing the force needed for some movements. Its announcement says familiar loads, such as a bag of concrete or a five-gallon bucket of paint, feel lighter. That is the developer’s description, not an independent measurement of reduced effort. The described workflow still has employees lifting and moving the goods. [S1][S2]

Virginia Tech split the development work between mechanics and ergonomics. Graduate student Taylor Pesek focused on the mechanism, while Emily Beauchamp worked on ergonomics and the suit’s soft elements. For a retail team, helping someone straighten up and making equipment comfortable to wear are separate design tasks. [S1]

The evaluation will follow two tracks. Virginia Tech researcher Alan Asbeck and his team will work with Lowe’s on the suits’ physical impact over the coming months. Lowe’s will lead employee-engagement studies about the work experience. Both are project participants. Their planned studies ask different questions: does the equipment help physically, and how does it affect the working day? Positive feedback alone would not establish fewer injuries. [S1][S2]

Neither May 15 announcement reports a measured reduction in injuries or time saved per shift, or sets a higher safe lifting limit. A claim that a load feels lighter supplies none of those figures. Virginia Tech says Lowe’s will assess the pilot before looking for opportunities to expand. Four suits are in use at one store; the partners have not announced a wider deployment. [S1][S2]

Source documents

  1. Lowe’s and Virginia Tech develop exosuit designed to help retail employeeshttps://news.vt.edu/articles/2017/05/eng-lowesexosuit.html
  2. Lowe’s and Virginia Tech Equip Retail Employees With Futuristic Wearable Robotic Suithttps://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lowes-and-virginia-tech-equip-retail-employees-with-futuristic-wearable-robotic-suit-300457376.html