Investigating the effect of a passive trunk exoskeleton on local discomfort, perceived effort and spatial distribution of back muscles activity

Abstract

This study aimed at determining the effect of a passive exoskeleton on local perceived discomfort, perceived effort and low back muscles’ activity. Thirteen volunteers performed two simulated working tasks with and without the exoskeleton. In the static task, the exoskeleton decreased the lumbar perceived discomfort, the perceived effort and the level of low back muscles’ activity (∼10%) while increasing discomfort in the chest and feet. The percent decrease in EMG amplitude was correlated with the percent increase in perceived effort with exoskeleton. For the dynamic task, the exoskeleton increased the discomfort in the chest and decreased the level of back muscle activity (∼5%). Current findings suggest exoskeleton is effective in reducing the back load while increasing the perceived discomfort at non-targeted body regions in both working tasks. The concurrent increase of discomfort in non-targeted areas probably led to a higher perceived effort despite the reduction of low back muscle activity.

Practitioner summary: This study provided insights into exoskeleton effects on local discomfort, perceived effort and muscle activity. Overall, the potential benefits of passive exoskeleton should be considered alongside its adverse effects on the non-targeted body regions that can lead to an increase of perceived effort despite the reduction of back muscle activity.

Keywords:

• Industrial exoskeleton
• perceived discomfort
• perceived effort
• high-density surface electromyography

Acknowledgements

The present study stemmed from the desire of three working groups with different expertise to cooperate to share research interests and integrate results. We would like to thank all participants involved in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Regione Piemonte and the Ministry of Education, University, and Research of Italy in the POR FESR 2014/2020 framework, Project ‘Human centered Manufacturing Systems (HuManS),’ Call ‘Piattaforma tecnologica Fabbrica Intelligente.’