Lightweight Active Soft Back Exosuit for Construction Workers in Lifting Tasks

Low back pain (LBP) is prevalent among construction workers, which causes many LBP sufferers, and consequently leads to corresponding economic and skilled workforce losses. Back exoskeletons are verified to be effective in low back load and damage reduction, but existing devices are restricted by bulky size, heavy weight, and high price. This study proposes a lightweight active soft back exosuit to assist construction workers with overexertion prevention in heavy lifting tasks, and the actuator is innovatively based on McKibben air muscle. This exosuit prioritizes its lightweight, compacted size, flexibility, good breathability, low cost, and providing support as needed. The maximal injected gas pressure of pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) is 0.20 MPa, and each PAM provides maximum contraction force of 116 N. A biomechanics evaluation suggests the exosuit can provide assistive moment of up to 54.08 N·m. Human subject testing shows significant electromyographic (EMG) signal reduction at longissimus (LG) and multifidus (MF) with the proposed exosuit, and the subject evaluation of the exosuit shows the exosuit was helpful in reducing mental and physical demand and effort. The results suggest the great potential of this exosuit to serve construction management in terms of worker LBP prevention and reducing the corresponding economic and skilled workforce losses.