Rigid, Soft, Passive, and Active: A Hybrid Occupational Exoskeleton for Bimanual Multijoint Assistance
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Physically demanding work is still common in western countries, with large proportions of the workforce that are exposed for more than a quarter of their working time to tiring postures or repetitive tasks: the shoulder is one of the main body areas susceptible to work-related musculo-skeletal disorders. Recent advancements in assistive technology have provided new instruments to promote safety and reduce workload. Colloquially referred to as occupational exoskeletons (OEs), these wearable devices are usually spring-loaded, and provide gravity support for overhead tasks. OEs for upper limbs are usually single-joint exoskeletons and assist shoulder flexion/extension; they do not provide support to distal joints such as the elbow. In the present work, starting from a commercially available exoskeleton, we propose an innovative concept of hybrid upper-limb OEs. We combined a spring-loaded shoulder exoskeleton with an active elbow exosuit to extend the capability of the OEs to provide gravitational support to both shoulder and elbow flexion-extension in strenuous manual tasks. The proposed device can reduce up to 32% of the <italic>biceps</italic> activity during the elbow flexion and up to 31% of the <italic>deltoids</italic> activity during the shoulder abduction. In-lab experimentation showed the potentials of such a hybrid approach in reducing the strain of the upper-limb muscles.
Details
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2557-2564 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2022 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
ORCID | /0000-0003-2862-9196/work/173052916 |
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Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Arms, Elbow, Exoskeletons, Muscles, Shoulder, Task analysis, Torque