Development of a Pneumatic Passive Lower Back Assist Device with Assist Force Adjustment Function

Work-related back pain has become a global challenge. In addition, the number of people with back pain is increasing, and this has become a worldwide challenge. Therefore, a variety of lower back assist devices have been developed to reduce the burden on the lower back during work. However, if they are too heavy because of energy sources and actuators, or take too much time to wear, the overall workload cannot be reduced. In this study, we develop a pneumatic passive lower back assist device with an assistive force adjustment function that is user-friendly, lightweight, and easy to wear for various tasks. This study describes the outline of the developed lower back assist device, estimation of the assist force, and a simple lifting experiment to assess the lower back assist device we developed.