Evaluation of Trunk-Supporting Exoskeleton

Abstract

Trunk Supporting Exoskeletons are increasingly being evaluated in workplaces as viable ergonomic interventions for reducing the risk of back injuries. A series of trunk-supporting exoskeletons have been designed and built at the University of California at Berkeley and suitX. These exoskeletons decrease the forces on the wearer’s back at L5/S1 location. This article describes one of these exoskeletons, referred to as backX, and its evaluation method. backX is designed not only to reduce the forces and torques on the wearer’s back at L5/S1 location, but also to allow the wearer to perform all kinds of maneuvers such as walking, squatting, ascending and descending stairs, slopes and ladders, riding bicycles and driving trucks. This study finds that average muscle activities of the thoracic and lumbar erector spinae muscles among equal populations of male and female subjects, wearing backX while maintaining forward bending postures, are reduced by 75% and 56% respectively. The results of this study and extended field evaluations indicate that wearing backX minimizes the risk of back injuries among workers who repeatedly go through stooping, squatting, and bending postures for various tasks, such as lifting objects.