Kibeum Ryoo

US Patent:

20130184626, Jul 18, 2013

Filed:

Jun 28, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/807456

Inventors:

Homayoon Kazerooni - Berkeley CA, US
Kibeum Ryoo - Berkeley CA, US
Han Woong Bae - Pittsburg CA, US
Daniel Merala - San Carlos CA, US

Assignee:

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - Oakland CA

International Classification:

A61F 5/02

US Classification:

602 19

Abstract:

A trunk support device () is configurable to be worn by a person to reduce the muscle forces in the person's back during forward bending. The device (), among other things, includes: a waist strap () which is configurable to be coupled to the person waist; a chest support () which is configurable to be coupled to the person's chest and capable of pushing against the person chest; and first and second torque generators () coupled to the chest support () and the waist strap () and capable of providing a resistance torque between them. In operation, when a person wearing the device () bends forward, at least one of the torque generators () imposes a torque between the chest support () and the waist strap (), causing the chest support () to impose a force onto the person's chest backwardly and the waist strap () to impose a force onto the person's hip.