Model Based Analysis of Trunk Exoskeleton for Human Efforts Reduction

Recent studies highlighted the importance of assisting workers for human efforts reduction in manual handling and lifting tasks by using wearable exoskeletons. In this paper, several configurations of a trunk exoskeleton in terms of hinge joint positions are investigated with the attempt to identify the best ones for human efforts reduction. Both human joints loads and interface forces are considered and compared through simulations. The proposed computational ap-proach may be the starting point for the analysis of design and development of effective human assistance devices.