Effectiveness Evaluation of Waist Support Tool through Human Posture Balance

A lot of carrying workers wonder whether it is good to wear a waist support tool to protect the waist or not. Although the qualitative analysis of waist support tool is generally used for the evaluation, there is not yet the evaluation of quantitative analysis. In this paper, we proposed the method of quantitative analysis in order to evaluate the effectiveness of waist support tool through human postural balance. Through we measured the trace of Center of Pressure (CoP) by using the Wii balance board, we proposed the method to estimate the bending angle and sway angle of human upper body through the analysis of the human balance. Through the analysis, we found that the participant under the condition of wearing the waist support tool had the initial smaller bending angle, and he also had the smaller sway angle during lifting the load. That meant that the waist support tool helped the initial bending motion, and also the participant made less from side to side.