TY - GEN
T1 - Evaluating the Benefits of a Soft Inflatable Knee Exosuit during Squat Lifting
AU - Yumbla, Emiliano Quinones
AU - Sridar, Saivimal
AU - Zhang, Wenlong
N1 - Funding Information:
The work is supported in part by the Arizona Department of Health Services under Grant ADHS18-198863, and in part by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This work aims to investigate the effects of knee extension assistance during squat lifting. We hypothesize that adding an external torque to the knee joint using a soft inflatable exosuit can potentially induce a reduction in the muscular effort that extends to the posterior chain muscles. A total of 8 healthy test participants are recruited and instructed to lift a weight equivalent to 10% of their bodyweight. The muscle activities of the left and right Vastus Lateralis, Biceps Femoris, Gluteus Maximus, Erector Spinae (Iliocostalis and Longissimus) and Multifidus muscle groups were studied for baseline, non-Assisted, and assisted conditions. The majority of participants (6 out of 8) demonstrated consistent reduction in the muscular effort of at least one muscle group of the posterior chain. A maximum reduction of 55% in the average muscle activity of the Multifidus muscle group is observed in one participant. Different neuromuscular adaptation mechanisms were observed among subjects that ultimately led to a reduction in lower-limb or back muscles activity. The results reveal that assisting knee extension during a lifting task has significant effects on muscle activity with benefits that extend to the posterior chain muscles. This work provides early evidence that the soft inflatable knee exosuit can be used in material handling tasks to reduce muscle effort and prevent work-related injuries.
AB - This work aims to investigate the effects of knee extension assistance during squat lifting. We hypothesize that adding an external torque to the knee joint using a soft inflatable exosuit can potentially induce a reduction in the muscular effort that extends to the posterior chain muscles. A total of 8 healthy test participants are recruited and instructed to lift a weight equivalent to 10% of their bodyweight. The muscle activities of the left and right Vastus Lateralis, Biceps Femoris, Gluteus Maximus, Erector Spinae (Iliocostalis and Longissimus) and Multifidus muscle groups were studied for baseline, non-Assisted, and assisted conditions. The majority of participants (6 out of 8) demonstrated consistent reduction in the muscular effort of at least one muscle group of the posterior chain. A maximum reduction of 55% in the average muscle activity of the Multifidus muscle group is observed in one participant. Different neuromuscular adaptation mechanisms were observed among subjects that ultimately led to a reduction in lower-limb or back muscles activity. The results reveal that assisting knee extension during a lifting task has significant effects on muscle activity with benefits that extend to the posterior chain muscles. This work provides early evidence that the soft inflatable knee exosuit can be used in material handling tasks to reduce muscle effort and prevent work-related injuries.
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U2 - 10.1109/BioRob52689.2022.9925290
DO - 10.1109/BioRob52689.2022.9925290
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85141869751
T3 - Proceedings of the IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics
BT - BioRob 2022 - 9th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics
PB - IEEE Computer Society
T2 - 9th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BioRob 2022
Y2 - 21 August 2022 through 24 August 2022
ER -