改进软肩外骨骼设计,提升舒适性与使用体验,同时不降低辅助效果。
Can We Redesign a Shoulder Exosuit to Enhance Comfort and Usability Without Losing Assistance?
- 通过用户中心设计优化结构,提升肩部活动自由度。
- 新设计使横向平面活动度提升30度,肌肉负荷不变。
- 使用者评价显示压力减小,易用性与舒适度显著提高。
肩关节活动受限会影响多种疾病人群的上肢功能和日常活动能力。可穿戴外骨骼在辅助手臂抬升、降低肌肉负担、支持功能性动作方面展现出潜力,但舒适性常未被作为明确设计目标,而其直接影响长期实际使用。本研究开发了第二代软肩外骨骼(Soft Shoulder v2),针对前代版本的舒适性问题进行改进,同时提升辅助性能。设计将助力方向从冠状面调整至矢状面,以更好支持功能性手部定位。在8名健康受试者中对比了旧版(v1)与新版(v2)模块,在静态持重、动态举升及功能性取放任务中评估肌电活动、运动学及用户主观反馈。两者均延长了耐力时间、减少三角肌激活,并保持无动力抬臂时的透明性。但在功能性任务和舒适性评估中差异明显:新设计改善了前伸臂位,横向平面活动度最高提升30°,且未增加肌肉需求。用户报告表明,新版压力感显著下降,有效性、易用性和舒适度评分大幅提升。结果表明,针对性的用户导向设计优化可在不牺牲辅助性能的前提下,显著提升舒适性与功能交互,推动软外骨骼向长期、日常使用迈进。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Reduced shoulder mobility limits upper-limb function and the performance of activities of daily living across a wide range of conditions. Wearable exosuits have shown promise in assisting arm elevation, reducing muscle effort, and supporting functional movements; however, comfort is rarely prioritized as an explicit design objective, despite it strongly affects real-life, long-term usage. This study presents a redesigned soft shoulder exosuit (Soft Shoulder v2) developed to address comfort-related limitations identified in our previous version, while preserving assistive performance. In parallel, assistance was also improved, shifting from the coronal plane to the sagittal plane to better support functionally relevant hand positioning. A controlled comparison between the previous (v1) and redesigned (v2) modules was conducted in eight healthy participants, who performed static holding, dynamic lifting, and a functional pick and place task. Muscle activity, kinematics, and user-reported outcomes were assessed. Both versions increased endurance time, reduced deltoid activation, and preserved transparency during unpowered shoulder elevation. However, the difference between them emerged most clearly during functional tasks and comfort evaluation. The redesigned module facilitated forward arm positioning and increased transverse plane mobility by up to 30 deg, without increasing muscular demand. User-reported outcomes further indicated a substantial improvement in wearability, with markedly lower perceived pressure and higher ratings in effectiveness, ease of use, and comfort compared to the previous design. Taken together, these findings show that targeted, user-centered design refinements can improve comfort and functional interaction without compromising assistive performance, advancing the development of soft exosuits suitable for prolonged and daily use.
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