Wearable Gravity Compensation System for Muscular Load Reduction in Manual Handling of Heavy Objects

As the working population shrinks due to a decreasing birthrate and an aging society, greater workforce participation by women and the elderly is expected. However, the manual handling of heavy objects imposes significant physical burdens, limiting their involvement and worsening labor shortages. Conventional assistive devices support only specific body parts, leading to residual strain. In this study, a wearable weight offloading system was developed to reduce muscular load on both the lower back and the arms. Its effectiveness was demonstrated through lifting and carrying experiments with a 10 kg object.