SBIR Phase I: Mechanized clothing to enhance productivity and low back health in the logistics industry

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to develop mechanized clothing technology to reduce physical disability, healthcare costs and missed work for material and package-handlers in the logistics industry. Workers in this industry are at high risk of developing low back pain (LBP) due to the physical demands of repeated leaning and lifting. There are currently no solutions for this occupation that are effective, affordable, practical and unobtrusive. This project is focused on mechanized clothing, a game-changing new device to reduce fatigue and incidence of low back pain amongst material/package-handlers and other occupations that involve repetitive lifting and leaning. For employers, mechanized clothing creates the potential for a happier, healthier and more productive workforce with reduced employee turnover, medical costs and understaffing issues. For workers, mechanized clothing means the potential for less low back pain, fatigue and missed work. For society, it means the potential to improve well-being for millions of individuals worldwide and to reduce the burden on the healthcare system and reliance on painkillers. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop an exoskeleton that is able to integrate into the normal workflow of material/package-handlers. Mechanized clothing has been shown in lab tests to reduce loading on the low back. The key to demonstrating commercial feasibility is proving to logistics companies that their workers can be assisted in a real world environment without interfering with daily workflow. The SBIR project plan is to (i) design a multi-stage clutch to prepare for real-world testing; (ii) use a robotic emulator system in the lab to quantify optimal assistive spring stiffness for leaning and lifting biomechanics, to inform spring selection in the new mechanized clothing prototype; and (iii) demonstrate feasibility of device integration into a real-world package-handling environment by testing users with the mechanized clothing prototype and assessing the degree to which it can assist users without hindering workflow. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.