ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Soft Robotics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2025.1687825
This article is part of the Research TopicElastic Actuators and Flexible Sensors for Exoskeleton RobotsView all articles
FleXo: A Flexible Passive Exoskeleton Optimized for Reducing Lower Back Strain in Manual Handling Tasks
Provisionally accepted
Federico Allione1*
Maria Lazzaroni1
ANTONIOS EMMANOUIL GKIKAKIS1
Christian Di Natali1
Luigi Monica2
Darwin Gordon Caldwell1
Jesus Ortiz1- 1Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy
- 2Istituto Nazionale Assicurazione Contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro, Rome, Italy
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Musculoskeletal disorders, particularly low back pain, are some of the most common occupational health issues globally, causing significant personal suffering and economic burdens. Workers performing repetitive manual material handling tasks are especially at risk. FleXo, a lightweight (1.35 kg), flexible, ergonomic, and passive back-support exoskeleton is intended to reduce lower back strain during lifting tasks while allowing full freedom of movement for activities like walking, sitting, or side bending. FleXo's design results from an advanced multi-objective design optimization approach that balances functionality and user comfort. In this work, validated through user feedback in a series of relevant repetitive tasks, it is demonstrated that FleXo can reduce the perceived physical effort during lifting tasks, enhance user satisfaction, improve employee well-being, promote workplace safety, decrease injuries, and lower the costs (both to society and companies) associated with lower back pain and injury.
Keywords: Soft exoskeleton, Flexible exoskeleton, wearable robotics, Back-support Exoskeleton, occupational exoskeleton
Received: 18 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Allione, Lazzaroni, GKIKAKIS, Di Natali, Monica, Caldwell and Ortiz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Federico Allione, federico.allione@iit.it
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.