Design and Implement an Elastically Suspended Back Frame for Reducing the Burden of Carrier

Previous work has proved that carrying an elastically suspended load can improve the biomechanics of human body and reduce the burden of human body compared with carrying a rigid load. However, how to design and implement an effective elastically suspended load has been less researched. In this paper, we firstly analyze the relationship between the elastic load force acting on the human body and the parameters (stiffness and damping) of the elastic system to guide the design. Then, our prototype which is an effective elastically suspended back frame and can bind loads of various shapes is realized. The mass of the whole prototype is 2.66 kg. Experiments were carried to test the effect of the system. Results show that an elastically suspended back frame with a load of 25.3 kg could reduce the amplitude of load by 30.2%, reduce maximal load force acting on the carrier by 16.6% compared with the rigid load with backpack. Compared with carrying the rigid load with backpack, the mechanical work is reduced by 56.5% and the maximal mechanical power is also reduced by 66.1%.