Multijoint passive elastic spine exoskeleton for stoop lifting assistance

Abstract

In the task of carrying heavy objects, it is easy to cause back injuries and other musculoskeletal diseases. Although wearable robots are designed to reduce this danger, most existing exoskeletons use high-stiffness mechanisms, which are beneficial to load-bearing conduction, but this restricts the natural movement of the human body, thereby causing ergonomic risks. This article proposes a back exoskeleton composed of multiple elastic spherical hinges inspired by the biological spine. This spine exoskeleton can assist in the process of bending the body and ensure flexibility. We deduced the kinematics model of this mechanism and established an analytical biomechanical model of human–robot interaction. The mechanism of joint assistance of the spine exoskeleton was discussed, and experiments were conducted to verify the flexibility of the spine exoskeleton and the effectiveness of the assistance during bending.

Twitter Big Data as A Resource for Exoskeleton Research: A Large-Scale Dataset of about 140,000 Tweets and 100 Research Questions

“…So, to determine the input for this query field, the previous works [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] in the field of exoskeleton technology were studied to determine the most common phrases or set of keywords that are used to refer to the underlining exoskeleton systems. A list of phrases and keywords can be found from these works which include -"Exoskeleton-Type Systems", "Upper-Limb Exoskeleton", "Indego Explorer Lower-Limb Exoskeleton", "Rehabilitation Exoskeleton," "Powered Knee Exoskeleton", "Exo4Work Shoulder Exoskeleton,", "Wearable Elbow Exoskeleton", "Powered Ankle Exoskeleton", "Wearable Waist Exoskeleton", "Powered Hip Exoskeleton", "Neck Supporting Exoskeleton", "Elastic Spine Exoskeleton", "Wrist Exoskeleton", "Robotic Exoskeleton", "Finger Exoskeleton", and "Lower Limb Exoskeleton".…”

Occupational Exoskeletons: Understanding the Impact on Workers and Suggesting Guidelines for Practitioners and Future Research Needs

“…Among the most common issues are those with shoulder exoskeletons, which produce an increase in antagonist muscles activity and a decrease in agonist muscles [28]. Some passive spinal exoskeletons provide less thrust than the back, increasing the load instead of reducing it, and for some exoskeletons, there is no possibility of using them in hot places as the user's thermal response has been negative [38,39]. These exoskeletons cause excessive perspiration, rendering them unsuitable for usage at work.…”

Twitter Big Data as a Resource for Exoskeleton Research: A Large-Scale Dataset of about 140,000 Tweets and 100 Research Questions

“…So, to determine the input for this query field, the previous works [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] in the field of exoskeleton technology were studied to determine the most common phrases or set of keywords that are used to refer to the underlining exoskeleton systems. A list of phrases and keywords can be found in these works, which include -"Exoskeleton-Type Systems", "Upper-Limb Exoskeleton", "Indego Explorer Lower-Limb Exoskeleton", "Rehabilitation Exoskeleton," "Powered Knee Exoskeleton", "Exo4Work Shoulder Exoskeleton,", "Wearable Elbow Exoskeleton", "Powered Ankle Exoskeleton", "Wearable Waist Exoskeleton", "Powered Hip Exoskeleton", "Neck Supporting Exoskeleton", "Elastic Spine Exoskeleton", "Wrist Exoskeleton", "Robotic Exoskeleton", "Finger Exoskeleton", and "Lower Limb Exoskeleton".…”

“…In the last few years, exoskeletons have been developed for specific body parts or joints. These include exoskeletons for the knee [5], shoulder [6], elbow [7], ankle [8], waist [9], hip [10], neck [11], spine [12], wrist [13], and index finger [14]. The exoskeleton technology has been rapidly advancing [15] in the recent past on account of its multitude of applications and use cases.…”

“…In view of the rapid advances in exoskeleton research in the recent past [15], its applicability for a wide range of use cases for diverse users with diverse needs [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], projected increase of the booming exoskeleton market to become USD 1.3 billion by the end of 2024 [20], and limitations in prior works in this field [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] that did not focus on mining social media conversations about exoskeletons which could have served as an information resource for studying user interest, views, opinions, perspectives, attitudes, acceptance, and feedback towards exoskeletons, it is crucial to develop a dataset of conversations related to exoskeletons. The work presented in this paper aims to address this research challenge by exploring the intersections of Big Data, Data Mining, Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Internet of Everything, and their interrelated disciplines.…”