Three Sports Technology students from Aalborg University, Bo E. Seiferheld, Jeppe Frost and Mathias Krog, won the best student paper award at the 2020 annual meeting of the Danish Biomechanics Society for their work on exoskeletons.
The students used musculoskeletal modelling with the AnyBody Modeling System to optimize support settings for ShoulderX exoskeletons used by workers in the supermarket sector when staking goods on shelves.
The simulations showed that the exoskeleton can indeed reduce the loads on spine and shoulders, but correct settings are important to obtain the desired effect, and badly chosen combinations of settings could increase the loads. The paper concludes that musculoskeletal modelling can be an efficient way to evaluate and optimize exoskeleton interventions.