Assessment of Exoskeleton Related Changes in Kinematics and Muscle Activity

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders, reported at shoulder and low back regions, rank among the most serious health problems in industry. Owing to their ability in providing support to the shoulder and back regions during sustained and repetitive tasks, passive exoskeletons are expected to prevent work-related disorders. In this work, experimental protocols were conducted for the extraction of relevant information regarding the neuromuscular activation and kinematics during simulated working activities with passive exoskeletons. Our results support the notion these passive exoskeletons have the potential to alleviate muscular loading and therefore to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in the industrial sector.