Design of a load carriage system oriented to reduce acceleration forces when carrying a backpack

Abstract

In military life, load carriage is an unavoidable part of field operations which is the reason why soldiers often make use of a military backpack. Infantry soldiers usually carry loads weighting more than 30% of their body weight. When the soldier carries a certain weight, his energy expenditure increases, which causes a reduction in performance. The transported load has a movement similar to the vertical displacement of the center of mass of the soldier while walking. This leads to a significant increase in the acceleration forces generated by the action of said load on the body which explains the increase in energy expenditure. The objective of this project was to develop a load carriage system that suspends the load and reduces its vertical displacement. Results show a reduction in both the vertical excursion of the load and in the total vertical ground reaction force when carrying a load with the developed prototype, with respect to the conventional military backpack.