Second Spine: A Device to relieve stresses on the upper body during loaded walking

Joon Hyuk Park, Damiano Zanotto, Vineet Vashista, Xin Jin, Paul Stegall, Sunil K. Agrawal

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The target of this work is to experimentally validate the Second Spine, a wearable device recently developed by our group to transfer forces from shoulder to pelvis during loaded walking. A key-feature of the Second Spine compared to traditional framed backpacks is the adjustable stiffness of its structure, which allows the wearer to change the loadbearing behavior of the device. In line with previous studies on loaded walking, we investigate biomechanical and physiological variables on a small group of young healthy subjects, as they walked on a treadmill under 3 different conditions: free walking, walking with a backpack of 25% of subject's Body Weight (BW), and walking with the same backpack while wearing the device. Results indicate that wearing the Second Spine significantly reduces the pressure on shoulders and induces smaller deviations from unloaded walking in terms of gait timing and stride length. The activations of the rectus femoris and the gastrocnemius muscles, along with the kinematics of the knee joint, provide indirect evidence that dynamic loads were rigidly transmitted from the shoulder to the waist. We discuss how these preliminary findings might be relevant for the prevention of injuries related to load carriage, and how they set important guidelines for the next generation of the Second Spine.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication"2014 5th IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BioRob 2014
EditorsRaffaella Carloni, Lorenzo Masia, Jose Maria Sabater-Navarro, Marko Ackermann, Sunil Agrawal, Arash Ajoudani, Panagiotis Artemiadis, Matteo Bianchi, Antonio Padilha Lanari Bo, Maura Casadio, Kevin Cleary, Ashish Deshpande, Domenico Formica, Matteo Fumagalli, Nicolas Garcia-Aracil, Sasha Blue Godfrey, Islam S.M. Khalil, Olivier Lambercy, Rui C. V. Loureiro, Leonardo Mattos, Victor Munoz, Hyung-Soon Park, Luis Eduardo Rodriguez Cheu, Roque Saltaren, Adriano A. G. Siqueira, Valentina Squeri, Arno H.A. Stienen, Nikolaos Tsagarakis, Herman Van der Kooij, Bram Vanderborght, Nicola Vitiello, Jose Zariffa, Loredana Zollo
Pages689-694
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781479931262
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Sep 2014
Event5th IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BioRob 2014 - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Duration: 12 Aug 201415 Aug 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings of the IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics
ISSN (Print)2155-1774

Conference

Conference5th IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, BioRob 2014
Country/TerritoryBrazil
CitySao Paulo
Period12/08/1415/08/14

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