Design and simulation of waist booster driven by artificial muscle

HE Zixiao; HU Zhigang; YUE Yang

doi:10.16186/j.cnki.1673-9787.2022010080

Abstract：Objectives Based on providing assistance for patients with lumbar spine diseases,lumbar muscle strain,and for bending operators,a lightweight,flexible assistance,and comfortable wearing waist booster using McKibben pneumatic muscles was proposed.The muscle force changes of the main muscle groups of the waist when lifting heavy objects with and without the waist booster were analyzed to verify the effective-ness of the waist booster.Methods The 3D motion capture system and 3D force measuring system were used,and the kinematics data and sport dynamics data were obtained from the experimenters during lifting and moving.The 3D model of the waist strengthener was recognized as driving data,so as to build the bio-mechanical model of the waist skeletal muscle system of the body.The Hill's three factors muscle model was used to simulate the McKibben pneumatic artificial muscle.The human-computer interaction model was built for the simulation analysis.By measuring the changes in electromyographic signals of the main muscle groups in the waist during heavy lifting,comparing the electromyographic signal curve with the muscle force curve trend,the effectiveness of the simulation analysis results were verified.Results Comparing the changes in muscle strength of the main muscle groups in the waist when lifting a 30 kg weight with and without wearing a waist booster,it was found that the main participating muscles during waist booster exer-cise were the erector spinae,multifidus,and quadratus lumbosus.Among them,the erector spinae had the most significant assistance effect,with a assistance effect of 43%.Conclusions By conducting biomechani-cal simulations of human-computer interaction models verified the effectiveness of waist booster when lifting heavy objects.The booster can provide assistance for nursing staff and material handling workers.