Development of A Soft Power Suit for Lower Back Assistance
Zhejun Yao, Christine Linnenberg, Robert Weidner, Jens Wulfsberg
Abstract
Mechanical stresses on the spine are a significant risk factor for low back pain, a highly prevalent health problem around the world. Certain occupational activities such as repetitive heavy lifting and static bending posture lead to high loads on the lower back. To address this problem, we are developing a soft power suit capable of reducing physical load on the lower back during dynamic lifting and static forward bending. The power suit is designed to mimic the force transmission in the body and duplicate the force generated by muscles and tendons. Two twisted string actuators (TSAs) attached to a back brace are used to generate tensile forces which assist the underlying muscles to control trunk flexion. The fabric construction and TSA enable a lightweight design of the suit: without the battery, the entire system weighs only 2.4kg. Here we present the design and implementation of the prototype system along with a preliminary biomechanical study that evaluates the effect of the system on the body. The results show that the power suit does not change the wearer’s bending kinematics and helps the subject to keep the static bending posture. Moreover, using the power suit significantly reduced the muscle activation required for both static bending and dynamic lifting (50.2–54.0% and 21.4–25.2% reduction, respectively).
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2019_developmentofaso,
title = {Development of A Soft Power Suit for Lower Back Assistance},
author = {Zhejun Yao and Christine Linnenberg and Robert Weidner and Jens Wulfsberg},
booktitle = {ICRA 2019},
year = {2019}
}