Ricard Etienne, Hayot Chris, Clerc-Urmès Isabelle, Claudon Laurent, Desbrosses Kévin, Pontonnier Charles
Département Sciences Appliquées au Travail et aux Organisations, Institut National de Recherche et Sécurité (INRS), Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France.
ComBO research team, Université de Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA-UMR 6074, Rennes, France.
Wearable Technol. 2025 Apr 15;6:e19. doi: 10.1017/wtc.2025.8. eCollection 2025.
Adjusting the assistive torque of upper limb occupational exoskeletons is essential to optimize their effectiveness and user acceptance in companies. This adjustment enables a balance to be struck between the expected benefits and potential undesirable effects associated with their use, particularly for the shoulder joint, which is sensitive to the balance of forces. Despite this, no study has yet evaluated these assistive torques in static and dynamic conditions representative of work situations. The aim of this article is therefore to evaluate these assistive torques under these two conditions, using an isokinetic dynamometer. Angular velocities ranging from 0 to 240°/s and four levels of assistance were investigated. The results showed that the maximum assistive torques in flexion (energy restitution phase) were lower than those in extension (tensioning phase) by 20 to 36% and were median in static conditions. It was also observed that the level of assistance and the exoskeleton opening angles had a strong impact on the assistive torques, unlike the angular velocity in dynamic conditions, which had a minimal effect. Quantifying these assistive torques is crucial for assessing their biomechanical impact and adjusting the exoskeleton's assistance to the operator and the task performed.
调整上肢职业外骨骼的辅助扭矩对于在企业中优化其有效性和用户接受度至关重要。这种调整能够在预期益处与使用外骨骼相关的潜在不良影响之间达成平衡，尤其是对于对力的平衡敏感的肩关节而言。尽管如此，尚无研究在代表工作场景的静态和动态条件下评估这些辅助扭矩。因此，本文的目的是使用等速测力计在这两种条件下评估这些辅助扭矩。研究了从0到240°/秒的角速度以及四个辅助级别。结果表明，在屈曲（能量恢复阶段）时的最大辅助扭矩比伸展（拉伸阶段）时低20%至36%，并且在静态条件下为中等水平。还观察到，辅助级别和外骨骼开口角度对辅助扭矩有很大影响，但动态条件下的角速度影响最小。量化这些辅助扭矩对于评估其生物力学影响以及根据操作员和执行的任务调整外骨骼的辅助至关重要。
