Gender differences assessment in tower crane teleoperation: Experimental design

The construction industry faces barriers that hinder women from choosing careers in this field. Robotic advancements offer potential solutions to mitigate these barriers, e.g., the high physical demands and harsh work environments. Teleoperated robots have been introduced to increase work flexibility and work environment safety, making the industry more accessible and appealing to a diverse workforce. Yet, designing such systems must be approached considering a potential inclusive workforce to prevent reinforcing existing gender biases. To address this issue, this paper develops a framework to assess gender differences in construction equipment operation. Specifically, we choose tower crane operation as an aspect of construction work with the potential for teleoperation. We first analyze tower crane operation and its requisite capabilities. Through scientific management methods, 15 subtasks are identified. Through meta-Analysis, we filter three critical capabilities to measure gender differences. For these capabilities, scenarios from previous studies on gender difference analysis significantly differ from tower crane operation scenarios. After generating hypotheses for the filtered capabilities, we present an experimental framework designed to assess gender disparities within the context of tower crane operation. We aim to develop a robust framework for future study that explores gender-specific tailoring of teleoperation systems to enable an inclusive control system design to ensure diversity in this male-dominated industry.