Wearable Wheel-legged Device for Load Carriage

In military operations, soldiers often need to carry high-quality combat equipment, which inevitably puts greater pressure on the human body. Studies have shown that high loads and high instantaneous impact forces can cause adverse damage to the musculoskeletal system of the human body. In view of this situation, the wheel leg load device (WLD) designed in this research can effectively improve this problem. In this study, the usefulness of WLD was evaluated. Three volunteers performed five different sets of experiments on a treadmill. Data on the subject’s oxygen consumption and plantar strength during the experiment were collected. According to biomechanical analysis, WLD reduced the peak pressure when the subject was carrying a heavy load, and showed high performance when carrying a high-quality load. In a 20 kg load, oxygen consumption increased by 0.8% for every 1 kg of weight added on the WLD (an average increase of 1%/kg for a 70 kg load); Compared to the backpack’s 1.43%, it shows a great advantage. At the same time, WLD can reduce the instantaneous impact force, which has the effect of reducing the risk of overuse injury.