Abstract
Low-back exoskeletons are a wide-spreading technology tackling low-back pain, the leading work-related musculoskeletal disorder in many work sectors. Currently, spring-based (i.e., passive) exoskeletons are the mostly adopted in the industry, being cheaper and generally less complex and more intuitive to use. We introduce a system of interconnected wireless sensing units to provide online ergonomics feedback to the wearer. We integrate the system into our passive low-back exoskeleton and evaluate its usability with healthy volunteers and potential end users. In this way, we provide the exoskeleton with a tool aimed both at monitoring the interaction of the system with the user, providing them with an ergonomics feedback during task execution. The sensor system can also be integrated with a custom-developed Unity3D application which can be used to interface with Augmented- or Virtual-Reality applications with higher potential for improved user feedback, ergonomics training, and offline ergonomics evaluation of the workplace. We believe that providing ergonomics feedback to exoskeleton users in the industrial sector could help further reduce the drastic impact of low-back pain and prevent its onset.
This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, via an Open Call issued and executed under Project EUROBENCH (grant n. 779963) - XSPINE and REMOTe_XSPINE projects.
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The authors would like to thank the volunteers that participated in the prototype evaluation.
MG and AP hold shares in AGADE s.r.l., Milan, Italy.
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Pesenti, M. et al. (2022). Sensor-Based Task Ergonomics Feedback for a Passive Low-Back Exoskeleton. In: Miesenberger, K., Kouroupetroglou, G., Mavrou, K., Manduchi, R., Covarrubias Rodriguez, M., Penáz, P. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP-AAATE 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13342. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08645-8_47
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08645-8_47
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