Lei, T; Seo, J; Liang, K; Xu, J; Li, H; Zhou, Y; Khan, M and Heung, K H (2024) Lightweight active soft back exosuit for construction workers in lifting tasks. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 150(7): 04024073, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Low back pain (LBP) is prevalent among construction workers, which causes many LBP sufferers, and consequently leads to corresponding economic and skilled workforce losses. Back exoskeletons are verified to be effective in low back load and damage reduction, but existing devices are restricted by bulky size, heavy weight, and high price. This study proposes a lightweight active soft back exosuit to assist construction workers with overexertion prevention in heavy lifting tasks, and the actuator is innovatively based on McKibben air muscle. This exosuit prioritizes its lightweight, compacted size, flexibility, good breathability, low cost, and providing support as needed. The maximal injected gas pressure of pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) is 0.20 MPa, and each PAM provides maximum contraction force of 116 N. A biomechanics evaluation suggests the exosuit can provide assistive moment of up to 54.08 N·m. Human subject testing shows significant electromyographic (EMG) signal reduction at longissimus (LG) and multifidus (MF) with the proposed exosuit, and the subject evaluation of the exosuit shows the exosuit was helpful in reducing mental and physical demand and effort. The results suggest the great potential of this exosuit to serve construction management in terms of worker LBP prevention and reducing the corresponding economic and skilled workforce losses.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | lifting, construction worker, testing, low cost, human subject, prevention, back pain |
| Subjects: | research management, occupational health and safety management, professional practice, practitioner, financial risk, bidding |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Procurement, Health and Safety, Roles and Professions, Cost Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here