Xspine

Patent Pending

Semi-rigid back exoskeleton

This project started around December of 2018 when I started working with a professor back in Thailand on ​an exoskeleton, I went with an upper-limb exoskeleton, and he was working on lower-limb. The first project I ​did was reviewing the current technology and publishing a paper! That was my first scientific publication ​ever. It was a great learning experience since it was my first time dipping my feet into the academic world.

After reviewing the technology, I found that the back portion of exoskeletons is very underrated while it ​could create one of the biggest impacts on the labor-intensive work force.

Back exoskeleton, at the time, as not widely explore. Moreover, ​the powered ones have rigid structure making them very ​uncomfortable to wear due to limited range of motion.

So, I decided to focus my research on back exoskeleton! To ​fix the rigidity problem, I came up with a semi-rigid structure ​that can be moved around and becomes rigid according to the ​needs. First few iterations of Xspine, with patent pending, was ​inspired by a scene from Pacific Rim

Now, you may ask: why would you want to design a semi-​rigid structure just to complicate this whole thing?

Great question! You see, when Bexo or similar active back ​exoskeleton provide assistance, it not only creates L5/S1 torque, ​but it also creates a huge compressive force through the whole ​spine making it more uncomfortable and risk injuring the ​problem it was created to fix - lower back pain.

This is why later versions of Xspine has more defined ​structure, Bio-Inspired you could say, that would get rid of the ​compression.

3rd Generation Xspine

Unfortunately, Xspine never got to the point where I can ​start doing human experiment due to many reasons. Mainly ​because I was the only one working on it and there was not ​a lot of budgets for me to spend.

However, I was able to test out whether the design can ​get rid of the compressive force while providing assistance ​in the L5/S1 or not. I created this benchtop testing setup with ​6 axis load cell at the supposit L5/S1 spine and measure the ​forces and moments. I compared both Bexo and Xspine on ​this rig and I am happy to confirm that Xspine is objectively ​a better design for back exoskeleton with my bio-inspired ​semi-rigid structure!

This project is currently on ice. I am not sure for how long, ​but I still think that this is worth exploring more in the future ​when I have more time and resources!