This paper presents a design of a passive spine exoskeleton which implements a “push–pull” external assistive strategy. The spine exoskeleton was designed for reducing the risk of back injury. It applies a pulling force on thoracic region and a pushing force on lumbar region during spine flexion/extension. The design was inspired by previous simulation work, where the results highly supported benefits of the push–pull strategy on reducing the back muscular efforts and bending moment for the sagittal spine flexion/extension. A passive physical prototype was designed and constructed to test the push–pull strategy on human subjects. Three subjects were able to repeat the identical dynamic spine flexion and extension tasks with the spine exoskeleton prototype. The surface electromyography showed a reduction of up to 24% at lumbar and 54% at thoracic level muscle for the human subjects wearing the exoskeleton suit to accomplish the same static tasks without any external assistance. The muscle force and intervertebral bending moment were estimated to be reduced by up to 479 N and 36 N · m, respectively.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
March 2016
Research-Article
Design and Preliminary Evaluation of a Passive Spine Exoskeleton
Haohan Zhang,
Haohan Zhang
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Columbia University,
New York, NY 10027
e-mail: hzhang2347@columbia.edu
Columbia University,
New York, NY 10027
e-mail: hzhang2347@columbia.edu
Search for other works by this author on:
Abhijit Kadrolkar,
Abhijit Kadrolkar
Department of Mechanical
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: akadrolk@umass.edu
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: akadrolk@umass.edu
Search for other works by this author on:
Frank C. Sup, IV
Frank C. Sup, IV
Department of Mechanical
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: sup@umass.edu
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: sup@umass.edu
Search for other works by this author on:
Haohan Zhang
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Columbia University,
New York, NY 10027
e-mail: hzhang2347@columbia.edu
Columbia University,
New York, NY 10027
e-mail: hzhang2347@columbia.edu
Abhijit Kadrolkar
Department of Mechanical
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: akadrolk@umass.edu
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: akadrolk@umass.edu
Frank C. Sup, IV
Department of Mechanical
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: sup@umass.edu
and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
160 Governor's Drive,
Amherst, MA 01003
e-mail: sup@umass.edu
1Corresponding author.
Manuscript received March 23, 2015; final manuscript received September 14, 2015; published online November 16, 2015. Assoc. Editor: Carl Nelson.
J. Med. Devices. Mar 2016, 10(1): 011002 (8 pages)
Published Online: November 16, 2015
Article history
Received:
March 23, 2015
Revised:
September 14, 2015
Citation
Zhang, H., Kadrolkar, A., and Sup, F. C., IV (November 16, 2015). "Design and Preliminary Evaluation of a Passive Spine Exoskeleton." ASME. J. Med. Devices. March 2016; 10(1): 011002. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4031798
Download citation file:
Get Email Alerts
Related Articles
Evaluation of an Arm Support With Trunk Motion Capability
J. Med. Devices (December,2016)
Flexible Mechanical Joint as Human Exoskeleton Using Low-Melting-Point Alloy
J. Med. Devices (December,2014)
Estimation of the Two Degrees-of-Freedom Time-Varying Impedance of the Human Ankle
J. Med. Devices (March,2018)
Analysis and Evaluation of a Robotic Trephination in Penetrating Keratoplasty
J. Med. Devices (June,2016)
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Chapters
Introduction
Chitosan and Its Derivatives as Promising Drug Delivery Carriers
Exoskeletons and Bipeds
Designs and Prototypes of Mobile Robots
Rationale for Human-Powered Vehicle Design and Use
Design of Human Powered Vehicles