Development and validation of a three dimensional dynamic biomechanical lifting model for lower back evaluation for careful box placement

•A biomechanical model was developed for the activity of placing a box accurately on a shelf.•The model was validated by comparing the predicted muscle activity to the measured muscle activity.•The model was applied to a 30″ and 50″ shelf height showing that the 30″ shelf height imposes more stress to the lower back.

One of the major causes to low back injury is the box lifting activity, thus for many years biomechanics has been utilized by designers for ergonomic evaluations of the box lifting activity which includes the placement of the box. More recently these ergonomic investigations have focused on the careful placement of the box. The AnyBody (AB) biomechanical models and optimization within the AB software system in conjunction with motion capture has been shown to obtain adequate estimates of joint reaction forces of the body. To date there has not been a dynamic 3D box lifting model developed and validated for carefully placing a box using the AB modeling system and motion capture. Thus the focus of this paper is on the development, verification and validation of a box lifting full body model for lower back evaluations for a dynamic lifting activity for carefully placing a box on a shelf.

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