Improving Situational Awareness through Fatigue Reduction with Exoskeletons

Construction is a labor-intensive industry in which workers are routinely exposed to physically demanding and repetitive tasks, often resulting in substantial physical fatigue. This fatigue can impair key cognitive functions such as hazard recognition and safety risk assessment, both of which are essential components of situational awareness and accident prevention. Although emerging studies suggest that wearable exoskeletons (EXOs) may alleviate fatigue and enhance situational awareness, few have examined these effects in realistic construction settings. To address this gap, this study investigated the impact of EXO use on physical fatigue and situational awareness during construction task execution. Sixteen construction workers participated in the field experiment, performing their daily routine tasks with and without EXOs. Fatigue was monitored using the rating of fatigue scale, while situational awareness was evaluated through hazard recognition performance (HRP), situational awareness rating technique (SART), and safety risk perception (SRP) scores. Findings revealed that the use of EXOs led to a statistically significant 29% improvement in HRP scores, accompanied by a 37% reduction in fatigue. Correlation analysis demonstrated a strong negative relationship between changes in fatigue and changes in HRP ( r = −0.71, P = 0.002), suggesting that fatigue reduction is associated with enhanced hazard detection and attentional focus. No significant changes were observed in SRP or SART scores, indicating that broader risk perception and cognitive clarity were at least maintained when using the ergonomic intervention. These results suggest that passive EXOs may improve physical state without compromising cognitive safety. This research provides novel field-based evidence linking EXO use with improved hazard recognition through fatigue mitigation, advancing the discourse beyond biomechanics to encompass cognitive safety in active construction settings.