Exoskeletons in Intermittent Bending Tasks: Assessing Muscle Demands, Endurance, and User Perspectives.

Area of Science:

• Occupational biomechanics
• Human factors engineering
• Industrial ergonomics

Background:

• Industrial tasks often involve cyclical activities with rest periods, necessitating research into exoskeleton effectiveness in realistic work scenarios.
• Understanding the impact of Back-support industrial exoskeletons (BSIE) during intermittent tasks is vital for real-world application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of a BSIE on muscle activity, endurance, and user perception during intermittently performed trunk bending tasks.
• To evaluate how fatigue influences the benefits of BSIE in an industrial setting.

Main Methods:

• Twelve participants performed approximately 709 task cycles with and without a BSIE, including sustained bending, bending and retraction, and standing.
• Muscle activity (erector spinae, biceps femoris) and endurance were measured, with fatigue assessed using the Borg scale.
• User perspectives on physical demands were collected.

Main Results:

• The BSIE significantly reduced muscle activity in the low-back (18-24%) and legs (10-17%).
• BSIE benefits for the low-back were slightly reduced at medium fatigue levels compared to low fatigue.
• Participants completed 50% more task cycles with the BSIE and reported reduced physical exertion.

Conclusions:

• BSIEs effectively reduce muscle demands and delay fatigue onset in intermittently performed bending tasks.
• The use of BSIEs can enhance worker endurance, enabling more task cycles to be completed.
• Findings support the implementation of BSIEs to optimize industrial bending tasks and worker well-being.