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The Effect of Mobile Wearable Waist Assist Robot on Lower Back Pain during Lifting and Handling Tasks

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Abstract

The rapid growth in nursing demand in P.R.China and the slow increase in the number of qualified nurses has led to a serious increased in workload of existing nurses. Most of their works include heavyweight handling which causes low back pains. Thus a mobile, flexible, comfortable and wearable waist assist device, the Mobile Wearable Waist Assist Robot using pneumatic artificial muscles as power actuators has been developed. The wearer wears the device like a backpack, which can provide wearer the necessary assistance when he lifts loads or performs a static maintenance work, which will reduce the risk of lower back pain. The device is evaluated through an experiment which include three tests - heavy load handling, maximum weight lifting test, and Center of gravity (CoG) trajectory test during static weight lifting. Surface electromyography of erector spinae was recorded during the first test. The iEMG is significantly reduced by about 39% and 27%, respectively (p < 0.05). The angular velocity significantly decreases until the load reaches 35 kg (p < 0.05). When the device is in use, the CoG moving distance is significantly lower than not in use (p < 0.05). These three tests well verified the effectiveness of the Mobile Wearable Waist Assist Robot, which provides waist assists and reduces the risk of lower back pain.

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Acknowledgments

The work presented in this paper was supported by the Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group Co., Ltd. State Key Laboratory of Special Vehicles and Drive Systems Intelligent Manufacturing Project Open Project (GZ2019KF001). Special thanks are also extended to Ximei Zhou, Zhipeng Zhang, and Bing Liu for their contributions to this research study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Peng Yin, Liang Yang & Shengguan Qu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Smart Manufacturing for Special Vehicles and Transmission System, Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group Co., Ltd., Baotou, 014032, China

    Peng Yin, Shaofeng Du, Shengguan Qu & Ning Zhao

  3. Intelligent Technology R&D Center, Guangzhou Hyetone Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Liang Yang

  4. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Michigan–Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, 48128, USA

    Bochen Jia

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  1. Peng Yin
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  2. Liang Yang
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  3. Shaofeng Du
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  4. Shengguan Qu
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  5. Bochen Jia
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  6. Ning Zhao
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Correspondence to Liang Yang or Shengguan Qu.

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Yin, P., Yang, L., Du, S. et al. The Effect of Mobile Wearable Waist Assist Robot on Lower Back Pain during Lifting and Handling Tasks. Mobile Netw Appl 26, 988–996 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-020-01667-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-020-01667-4

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