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Back injuries are the most prevalent work-related musculoskeletal disordersand represent a major cause of disability. Although innovations in wearablerobots aim to alleviate this hazard, the majority of existing exoskeletons areobtrusive because the rigid linkage design limits natural movement, thuscausing ergonomic risk. Moreover, these existing systems are typically onlysuitable for one type of movement assistance, not ubiquitous for a wide varietyof activities. To fill in this gap, this paper presents a new wearable robotdesign approach continuum soft exoskeleton. This spine-inspired wearable robotis unobtrusive and assists both squat and stoops while not impeding walkingmotion. To tackle the challenge of the unique anatomy of spine that isinappropriate to be simplified as a single degree of freedom joint, our robotis conformal to human anatomy and it can reduce multiple types of forces alongthe human spine such as the spinae muscle force, shear, and compression forceof the lumbar vertebrae. We derived kinematics and kinetics models of thismechanism and established an analytical biomechanics model of human-robotinteraction. Quantitative analysis of disc compression force, disc shear forceand muscle force was performed in simulation. We further developed a virtualimpedance control strategy to deliver force control and compensate hysteresisof Bowden cable transmission. The feasibility of the prototype wasexperimentally tested on three healthy subjects. The root mean square error offorce tracking is 6.63 N (3.3 % of the 200N peak force) and it demonstratedthat it can actively control the stiffness to the desired value. This continuumsoft exoskeleton represents a feasible solution with the potential to reduceback pain for multiple activities and multiple forces along the human spine.

Spine-Inspired Continuum Soft Exoskeleton for Stoop Lifting Assistance