颈部支撑外骨骼的研究
在一些需要长时间低头作业的岗位中，如外科医生做手术、流水线工人进行装配作业等，工作人员常常要维持头颈部向前弯曲的姿势，头部的重量会使颈部肌肉和骨骼承受较大的负担，导致这类长期从事低头作业的人员患颈部相关疾病的概率显著高于普通人群。然而，目前能为头部提供支撑辅助、有效缓解颈部肌肉负担，且不影响各种环境中正常操作功能的人体工学解决方案却十分匮乏。
一、研究方案
图1 颈椎支撑外骨骼的具体结构
基于上述结构设计，研究团队招募被试者开展了外骨骼系统的穿戴测试，评估了外骨骼对颈椎活动范围的影响及辅助支撑性能。
方案创新及优势：
3、外骨骼质量仅 520g（不含腰部穿戴的控制系统），比大多数现有颈部外骨骼更轻便。
二、实验验证
运动信息采集采用的是CHINGMU上海青瞳视觉科技有限公司开发的光学式运动捕捉系统。该系统配备了4台高速光学相机（MC4000），以110Hz的采样频率记录头部运动信息，运动捕捉系统如图2（a）所示。如图2（b）所示，在被试的躯干和头部共放置了9个标记点（Marker），高速摄像机捕捉标记点的时变位置信息，再由采集软件导出位置变化数据，进而通过计算得到头部的运动范围。
本研究招募了5名被试者（年龄：25.6±1.4 岁，身高：180.4±4.3 厘米，体重：70.1±7.9 千克）。每名被试者需分别在穿戴（柔性状态）和不穿戴外骨骼的状态下，以自主舒适的速度完成图3所示的三项运动任务。每项任务重复5次，并计算5次实验的平均活动范围。
5名被试者穿戴外骨骼前后关节运动范围的平均值对比情况如图4所示。图中颜色柱的长度代表5名受试者运动范围的平均值，误差棒代表其标准差。为了分析结果是否具有统计学意义，对运动范围结果进行配对样本T检验，图中*表示 p<0.05，**表示 p<0.01。
实验结果表明，穿戴外骨骼时，5名受试者的头部前屈、左侧旋转和右侧旋转的平均活动范围分别为60.4°±4.7°、28.9°±6.5°和32.6°±4.4°。与不穿戴外骨骼的状态相比，头部前屈、左侧旋转和右侧旋转的活动范围分别减少了7.51±6.2%、58.51±8.4%和56.07±5.0%。研究表明，头部前屈的活动范围能够满足外科医生在手术中的实际需求。尽管左右轴向旋转的活动范围有显著下降，但大多数活动仅需用到颈椎总活动范围的20%至40%，而本研究所提出的颈部外骨骼完全可以满足这一需求。
三、实验成果
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