Biomechanical investigation of dynamic materials handling tasks using opensim and an emg-assisted solver

Dynamic materials handling tasks greatly contribute to low back pain cases in the U.S. To biomechanically differentiate between techniques, a musculoskeletal model in OpenSim and EMG-assisted muscle dynamics estimator, the CEINMS software, were used to quantify risk factors for two waste collection techniques from experimental data. As expected, the EMG-assisted muscle estimator resulted in larger joint loads during the more dynamic technique than those estimated using conventional static optimization. Despite a greater increase in joint reaction loads of the dynamic technique from the EMG-assisted solver, the quasi-static technique did not result in decreased risk of low back pain.