This study presents the development of second spine, an upper body assistive device for
human load carriage. The motivation comes from reducing musculoskeletal injuries caused
by carrying a heavy load on the upper body. Our aim was to design a wearable upper body
device that can prevent musculoskeletal injuries during human load carriage by providing a
secondary load pathway—second spine—to transfer the loads from shoulders to pelvis
while also allowing a good range of torso motion to the wearer. Static analysis of the …

This study presents the development of second spine, an upper body assistive device for
human load carriage. The motivation comes from reducing musculoskeletal injuries caused
by carrying a heavy load on the upper body. Our aim was to design a wearable upper body
device that can prevent musculoskeletal injuries during human load carriage by providing a
secondary load pathway—second spine—to transfer the loads from shoulders to pelvis
while also allowing a good range of torso motion to the wearer. Static analysis of the …