SPEXOR: Design and development of passive spinal exoskeletal robot for low back pain prevention and vocational reintegration

The objective of SPEXOR project is to address low back pain as one of the most appealing health problems of the modern society by creating a body of scientific and technological knowledge in the multidisciplinary areas of biomechanics, robotics, and computer science that will lead to technologies for low back pain prevention. In this paper we provide an overview of the current state-of-art of SPEXOR that the consortium achieved in the first twenty-four months of the project. After introducing the rationale, we describe the biomechanics of low back pain intervention, development of the musculoskeletal stress monitoring for assessment of neuromuscular trunk functions, modeling and optimization of the interaction of spinal exoskeleton with the human body, electromechanical design and development of the passive spinal exoskeleton and its control, and finally the end-user evaluation of the functional effects, usability and satisfaction.