Smart Textile-Driven Soft Spine Exosuit for Lifting Tasks in Industrial Applications

Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are often caused by repetitive lifting, making them a significant concern in occupational health. Although wearable assist devices have become the norm for mitigating the risk of back pain, most spinal assist devices still possess a partially rigid structure that impacts the user comfort and flexibility. This paper addresses this issue by presenting a smart textile actuated spine assistance robotic exosuit (SARE), which can conform to the back seamlessly without impeding the user movement and is incredibly lightweight. The SARE can assist the human erector spinae to complete any action with virtually infinite degrees of freedom. To detect the strain on the spine and to control the smart textile automatically, a soft knitting sensor which utilizes fluid pressure as sensing element is used. The new device is validated experimentally with human subjects where it reduces peak electromyography (EMG) signals of lumbar erector spinae by around 32 percent in loaded and around 22 percent in unloaded conditions. Moreover, the integrated EMG decreased by around 24.2 percent under loaded condition and around 23.6 percent under unloaded condition. In summary, the artificial muscle wearable device represents an anatomical solution to reduce the risk of muscle strain, metabolic energy cost and back pain associated with repetitive lifting tasks.