Role of rapid manufacturing technology in wearable customized assistive technology for modern industry

An impact of a modern industrial system, such as in Industry 5.0, which brings customer authorization deeper into the manufacturing stream, may give pressure toward the industrial working system. Along with this system transformation, the declining trend of labor number as world demographical change created demand for higher productivity worker, which is stronger and more versatile for handling more than one working station, giving added value and personalization in fulfilling customer needs. Assistive Technology (AT) which is formerly for disabled or handicapped people, would be more widely used for everyone and working for its new purposes in producing higher individual physical capacity. A common challenge of providing a wearable AT, such as limb prostheses, orthoses, or exoskeletons, is customizing their geometry to fit on user body parts. In Industrial context, this would even be more challenging since it must be provided in massive number which can overburden companies overhead. The disruptive technology of prototyping such as 3D scanning and 3D printing brings a customized prototype into a new level of accomplishment life cycle and affordability. New processing technology and material development in 3D printing eventually transform rapid prototyping into rapid manufacturing of final AT product. This paper aims to examine recent research and development of AT from AT developers and communities as well as its novel development process. The new challenges of new AT existence are discussed further in the context of working safety and product standardization and a study about its impacts towards industrial productivity are highlighted.