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  4. Evaluation of antigravitational support levels provided by a passive upper-limb occupational exoskeleton in repetitive arm movements
 
research article

Evaluation of antigravitational support levels provided by a passive upper-limb occupational exoskeleton in repetitive arm movements

Ramella, Giulia  
•
Grazi, Lorenzo
•
Giovacchini, Francesco
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January 13, 2024
Applied Ergonomics

Upper-limb occupational exoskeletons to support the workers' upper arms are typically designed to provide antigravitational support. Although typical work activities require workers to perform static and dynamic actions, the majority of the studies in literature investigated the effects of upper-limb occupational exoskeletons in static and quasi-static activities, while only a few works focused on dynamic tasks. This article presents a systematic evaluation of the effects of different levels of antigravitational support (from about 60% to 100% of the arm gravitational load) provided by a passive upper-limb occupational exoskeleton on muscles' activity during repetitive arm movements. The effect of the exoskeleton on muscle activity was evaluated by the comparison of muscle activations with and without the exoskeleton. The average muscle activation was computed considering shoulder full flexion-extension cycles, and sub-movements, namely the arm-lifting (i.e., flexion) and armlowering (i.e., extension) movements. Results showed a quasi-linear correlation between antigravitational support and muscle activity reductions, both when considering the full flexion-extension cycle and in the arm-lifting movement (reductions were up to 64 and 61% compared to not wearing the exoskeleton, respectively). When considering the arm-lowering movement, providing antigravitational support close to or higher than 100% of the arm gravitational load led to increased muscle activations of the extensors (up to 127%), suggesting that such an amount of antigravitational support may be not effective for a complete biomechanical load reduction on the shoulder district in dynamic tasks.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104226
Web of Science ID

WOS:001162044400001

Author(s)
Ramella, Giulia  
Grazi, Lorenzo
Giovacchini, Francesco
Trigili, Emilio
Vitiello, Nicola
Crea, Simona
Date Issued

2024-01-13

Publisher

Elsevier Sci Ltd

Published in
Applied Ergonomics
Volume

117

Article Number

104226

Subjects

Technology

•

Occupational Exoskeletons

•

Upper-Limb Exoskeletons

•

Antigravitational Support

•

Repetitive Arm Movements

•

Ergonomics

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
BIOROB  
FunderGrant Number

EU

101006798

Available on Infoscience
March 18, 2024
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/206390
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