09 Oct 23
Protecting Workers’ Backs
Low back injuries are pervasive, costly, and debilitating for millions of individuals worldwide. Inspired by personal experience, Karl Zelik and his team at Vanderbilt University saw this as an opportunity to apply exoskeleton technology in a new way, with a soft, flexible, unobtrusive design that operates using a deceptively simple mechanism: reducing stress on the muscles supporting the lumbar spine.