Work
Lefint, Jérémy, and António Brandão Moniz. "
Assessment of Exoskeletons for Work Activities: The Dilemma behind the Product."
Applied Sciences 14 (2024): 7108.
AbstractThe introduction of exoskeletons by many companies has often resulted in potential users not wanting to wear them. Evaluations of the exoskeleton reveal benefits of use, including ergonomic advantages and a reduction of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. How can this contradiction be explained? By searching the available literature, we can identify the methods used to develop these devices and the methods employed to evaluate their acceptance and benefit. By looking at the product from different viewpoints and involving different disciplines, we will get to the root of this discrepancy. Our findings indicate that the product definition, development focus, and evaluation methods do not sufficiently and adequately address the primary goal of exoskeletons. The development of such devices should be prioritized not only for the delivery of support but also for the motivation of the user. Finally, we put forward the proposal to discuss the establishment of a novel development method for the prospective elaboration of exoskeletons.
Moniz, António B., Marta Candeias, and Nuno Boavida. "
Artificial Generative Intelligence and Work – Portugal." In
Generative Artificial Intelligence – Opportunities, Risks, and Policy Challenges, edited by Bjørn Bedsted, Nicklas Bang Bådum, Reinhard Grünwald, Steffen Albrecht, Tore Tennøe, Ferran Domínguez and Clara Marsan, 70-77. Barcelona: EPTA, 2023.
Moniz, António B., Nuno Boavida, Csaba Makó, Bettina Krings, and Pablo Sanz de Miguel. "
Introduction." In
Digital labours platforms: Representing workers in Europe, edited by A. B. Moniz and et al, 1-6. Famalicão: Humus/CICS.NOVA, 2023.
Krings, Bettina-Johanna, António B. Moniz, and Philipp Frey. "
Technology as enabler of the automation of work? Current societal challenges for a future perspective of work."
Revista Brasileira de Sociologia 9 (2021): 206-229.
AbstractDue to the innovative possibilities of digital technologies, the issue of increasing automation is once again on the agenda – and not only in the industry, but also in other branches and sectors of contemporary societies. Although public and scientific discussions about automation seem to raise relevant questions of the “old” debate, such as the replacement of human labor by introducing new technologies, the authors focus here on the new contextual quality of these questions. The debate should rethink the relationship between technology and work with regard to quantitative and qualitative changes in work. In this article, our example will be the introduction of automation in industry, which has been reflected in the widely recognized study by Frey and Osborne in 2013. They estimated the expected impacts of future computerization on US labor market outcomes as very high, specifically regarding the number of jobs at risk. Surprisingly, this study was the starting point of an intensive international debate on the impact of technologies on the future of work and the role of technological change in working environments. Thus, according to the authors, “old” questions remain important, but they should be reinterpreted for “new” societal demands and expectations of future models of work.
Brandao Moniz, António, and Bettina-Johanna Krings. "
Social conditions of human-machine interaction: decision, control, qualilification." In
Kolloquium at Weizenbaum Institute (2019). Berlin: Weizenbaum Institute, WZB, 2019.
AbstractDue to the ongoing technical advancements in robotics, new organizational and occupational impacts are expected in different sectors. The contribution of António Moniz and Bettina-Johanna Krings focuses on the social conditions under which technology is embedded into production processes. Thus, social distribution processes, demographic change, sustainability becomes more and more important when reflecting about "technology futures".
In particular they will ask:
How does automation change work & working conditions?
Which expectations on technology are strengthen-ing the concepts of work?
Which regulations and ethics principles must be considered (safety, autonomy, control)?
Which new competences and qualification dimen-sions will be raised for non-routine tasks in auto-mated environments?
Which new types of human-machine interaction can be developed with increased cyber-physical system application at the shopfloor?
