Biomechanical Analysis of Low - Back Load during Materials Handling and its Whole - Shift Monitoring within the Dortmund Lumbar Load Study - Dolly

Author(s):  
Matthias Jäger ◽  
Alwin Luttmann ◽  
Claus Jordan ◽  
Wolfgang Laurig
Author(s):  
Colleen Brents ◽  
Molly Hischke ◽  
Raoul Reiser ◽  
John Rosecrance

Craft brewing is a rapidly growing industry in the U.S. Most craft breweries are small businesses with few resources for robotic or other mechanical-assisted equipment, requiring work to be performed manually by employees. Craft brewery workers frequently handle stainless steel half-barrel kegs, which weigh between 13.5 kg (29.7 lbs.) empty and 72.8 kg (161.5 lbs.) full. Moving kegs may be associated with low back pain and even injury. In the present study, researchers performed a quantitative assessment of trunk postures using an inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based kinematic measurement system while workers lifted kegs at a craft brewery. Results of this field-based study indicated that during keg handling, craft brewery workers exhibited awkward and non-neutral trunk postures. Based on the results of the posture data, design recommendations were identified to reduce the hazardous exposure for musculoskeletal disorders among craft brewery workers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 740-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michihiro Yoshida ◽  
Takayuki Tanaka ◽  
Yoshio Tsuchiya ◽  
Takashi Kusaka ◽  
◽  
...  

This study describes the effect of Active Corset on the lumbar spine. Active Corset is assist tools used to prevent low back pain. It tightens the waist optimally according to the lumbar load during work. This study aimed to clarify the mechanical effect of tightening of the pelvis on lumbar joints and determine the mechanism leading to reduction of the lumbar load. Moreover, this study examined the phenomena commonly occurring among the subjects with reduced lumbar load by tightening of the pelvis. First, we will present some examples of currently used assist tools and demine the utility of the Active Corset among the various tools used. Next, the mechanism of the Active Corset will be described. Further, we will present a hypothesis about reducing the lumbar load by tightening the pelvis. After describing the change in the joint bending angle on tightening, we will describe reduction of burden from the antigravity torque around the lumbar joint. Finally, we will compare active tightening using Active Corset with tightening using a constant force and describe the advantage of active tightening.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (S2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kodai Kitagawa ◽  
Yoshiki Nishisako ◽  
Takayuki Nagasaki ◽  
Sota Nakano ◽  
Mitsumasa Hida ◽  
...  

Caregivers experience low back pain because of patient handling such as supporting standing-up. The lumbar load of a caregiver depends on the required force for patient handling motions. If the relationship between the required force and the lumbar load is quantitatively clarified, it may be useful for preventing low back pain in caregivers. In this study, we investigated the quantitative relationships between the required force and lumbar loads such as vertebral stress and muscle activity in supporting standing-up by computational musculoskeletal simulation. First, a musculoskeletal model of a caregiver was prepared, and then the model performed simulated supporting standing-up motions. The vertical load used as the required force was placed on the upper limb of the model. The compressive/shear stress of the vertebral (L4–L5) and muscle activities of spinae erector muscle group were recorded as the lumbar load. The results showed that there are highly significant correlations between the required force (r > 0.9, p < 0.01). In addition, regression equations for predicting each lumbar load by the required force with highly determination coefficients (R2 > 0.9) were obtained from these relationships. Furthermore, we found that when the required force was more than 120 N, the compression stresses of the vertebral exceeded injury threshold (3400 N) by the regression equation. These regression equations contribute to quantitatively consider lumbar loads of caregiver during patient handling based on injury thresholds and the required force.


Complexity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xinyu Ji ◽  
Dashuai Wang ◽  
Pengfei Li ◽  
Liangsheng Zheng ◽  
Jianquan Sun ◽  
...  

Lumbar Exoskeleton, as an important instance of wearable exoskeleton, has broad application prospects in logistics, construction, and other industries. Specifically, in the working scenarios that require long-term and repeated bending and rising movements, active lumbar exoskeleton (ALE) can provide effective protection and flexible assistance to wear’s waist muscles and bones, which will significantly reduce the risk of lumbar muscle strain. How to improve the human-machine coupling and enhance the assistance performance are the main challenges for ALE’s development. Based on the biomechanical analysis of the movement of lifting heavy objects from bottom up, this paper proposes a lightweight but powerful ALE, named as SIAT-WEXv2, which can output maximum assistive force of 28 N. Additionally, we use robust fuzzy adaptive algorithm to improve SIAT-WEXv2’s antidisturbance ability, so that it can provide continuous and supple assistance for wearer. Electromyography (EMG) signals of the lumbar erector spinae (LES) from ten subjects in two experimental cases (with or without SIAT-WEXv2) were collected to evaluate the effectiveness of our new ALE. The experimental results indicate that the reduction of iEMG signal at LES decreased monotonically from 60% ± 5.5% to 40.5% ± 6.5% as the weight of lifting load increased from 0 to 25 kg.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document