Lumbar posture assessment with fabric strain sensors.

Comput Biol Med

NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 E NASA Pkwy, Houston, TX, 77058, USA.

Published: March 2020

AI Article Synopsis

  • Astronauts face low back pain risks during spacewalks due to muscle deconditioning and the physical demands of spacesuits.
  • A study was conducted using fabric strain sensors to analyze lumbar movement in astronauts, with 12 male participants tested in various static postures.
  • The results showed good accuracy in measuring lumbar joint angles, especially in flexion and lateral bending, suggesting this method could enhance our understanding of injury risks and might be applicable to other work settings.

Article Abstract

Astronauts are at risk for low back pain and injury during extravehicular activity because of the deconditioning of the lumbar region and biomechanical demands associated with wearing a spacesuit. To understand and mitigate injury risks, it is necessary to study the lumbar kinematics of astronauts inside their spacesuit. To expand on previous efforts, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a generalizable method to assess complex lumbar motion using 10 fabric strain sensors placed on the torso. Anatomical landmark positions and corresponding sensor measurements were collected from 12 male study participants performing 16 static lumbar postures. A multilayer principal component and regression-based model was constructed to estimate lumbar joint angles from the sensor measurements. Good lumbar joint angle estimation was observed (<9° mean error) from flexion and lateral bending joint angles, and lower accuracy (13.7° mean error) was observed from axial rotation joint angles. With continued development, this method can become a useful technique for measuring suited lumbar motion and could potentially be extrapolated to civilian work applications.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2020.103624DOI Listing

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