shoulderX

Category: Worker Health & Safety > Personal Protective Equipment > Lifts and Hoists
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The shoulderX is a shoulder supported exoskeleton intended to aid in overhead work. A paper discusses a laboratory study that aimed to assess the effects of exoskeleton peak torque amplitude (PTA) on muscle activity, perceived exertion, and preference while performing simulated overhead work. The study involved fourteen right-handed males, and the primary independent variable was the level of exoskeleton support. The exoskeleton device used was a combination of the SuitX shoulderX V2 torso frame and the shoulderX V1 arms, and the PTA was adjusted to generate 5, 10, or 15Nm of peak torque at 90 degrees of shoulder elevation. The study used a repeated measures design, and participants completed 16 trials of overhead work, with each trial consisting of a specific PTA level, task type, and tool mass.

Benefits

- Decreases overall median and peak muscle activity bilaterally during both sustained and repetitive overhead tasks. - Most pronounced reductions in muscle activity occur at the anterior deltoid and upper trapezius, which have the highest activity levels while working overhead. - Provides maximum allowable support for a given task, tool, and worker anthropometry, potentially reducing the risk of shoulder injury with reduced shoulder muscle activations during overhead work. - Helps optimize PTA support for individual workers performing different types of work by sharing the PTA or its equivalent in experimental descriptions.

Limitations

- Short duration of each trial during which the device was tested in each condition (30 seconds). - Limited familiarization period provided. - Only investigated upper extremity muscle activation, and participants wore the torso frame of the exoskeleton in the 0Nm condition, which may have impacted results. - Only included a small number of healthy males, and further research is needed to investigate the effects of the exoskeleton on a larger population, including anthropometric and gender diversity, and specialized populations such as aged and injured workers

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