Francesco Draicchio

INAIL Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro · Occupational Medicine

This study explores the link between cancelling a prepared gait initiation in response to sudden environmental changes and maintaining body stability. To address this, we developed a gait initiation version of the Stop Signal Task (SST), a widely used tool for evaluating motor inhibition during different forms of action control. To understand the r...

The central nervous system (CNS) controls movements and regulates joint stiffness with muscle co-activation, but until now, few studies have examined muscle pairs during running. This study aims to investigate differences in lower limb muscle coactivation during gait at different speeds, from walking to running. Nineteen healthy runners walked and...

We present an avatar system designed to facilitate the embodiment of humanoid robots by human operators, validated through iCub3, a humanoid developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. More precisely, the paper makes two contributions: First, we present the humanoid iCub3 as a robotic avatar that integrates the latest significant improvements...

The central nervous system (CNS) controls movements and regulates joint stiffness with muscle coactivation, but until now few studies have examined muscle pairs during running. This study aims to investigate differences in lower limb muscle coactivation during gait at different speeds from walking to running. Nineteen healthy runners walked and ran...

Back-support exoskeletons are commonly used in the workplace to reduce low back pain risk for workers performing demanding activities. However, for the assistance of tasks differing from lifting, back-support exoskeletons potential has not been exploited extensively. This work focuses on the use of an active back-support exoskeleton to assist carry...

Physical therapy keeps exploiting more and more the capabilities of the robot of adapting the treatments to patients' needs. This paper aims at presenting a psychophysiological-aware control strategy for upper limb robot-aided orthopedic rehabilitation. The main features are the capability of i) generating point-to-point trajectories inside an adap...

Collaborative robots can relief human operators from excessive efforts during payload lifting activities. Modelling the human partner allows the design of safe and efficient collaborative strategies. In this paper, we present a control approach for human-robot collaboration based on human monitoring through whole-body wearable sensors, and interact...

Back-support exoskeletons are commonly used in the workplace to reduce low back pain risk for workers performing demanding activities. However, for the assistance of tasks differing from lifting, back-support exoskeletons potential has not been exploited extensively. This work focuses on the use of an active back-support exoskeleton to assist carry...

The characterization of both limbs’ behaviour in prosthetic gait is of key importance for improving the prosthetic components and increasing the biomechanical capability of trans-femoral amputees. When characterizing human gait, modular motor control theories have been proven to be powerful in providing a compact description of the gait patterns. I...

Biomechanical overload is considered a significant occupational risk in manufacturing and a potential cause of musculoskeletal disorders. This research aims to introduce new methodologies for the quantitative risk evaluation of biomechanical risk by combining surface electromyography with a motion acquisition system based on inertial measurement un...

Background: Work-related low-back disorders (WLBDs) are one of the most frequent and costly musculoskeletal conditions. It has been showed that WLBDs may occur when intervertebral or torso equilibrium is altered by a biomechanical perturbations or neuromuscular control error. The capacity to react to such disturbances is heavily determined by the...

This study aims at evaluating upper limb muscle coordination and activation in workers performing an actual use-case manual material handling (MMH). The study relies on the comparison of the workers’ muscular activity while they perform the task, with and without the help of a dual-arm cobot (BAZAR). Eleven participants performed the task and the f...

Background: Balance impairment is a common disability in post-stroke survivors, leading to reduced mobility and increased fall risk. Robotic gait training (RAGT) is largely used, along with traditional training. There is, however, no strong evidence about RAGT superiority, especially on balance. This study aims to determine RAGT efficacy on balanc...

It is usual to link respiratory and skin health issues to hairdressing job. The most current papers from throughout the world reported on biomechanics as well. Shoulder, lower back, and upper back joints were the most impacted. Several authors conducted ergonomic risk assessments through standardized protocols, like REBA, founding high-risk levels....

The proper mobilisation of patients affects not only the health of the caregiver but also the patient himself, since it is a critical condition for preventing treatment failure and avoiding strain injuries from pressure and wrong placement.Professional experience, using standardised handling techniques, can be modified using kinaesthetic approach.T...

Background: Industrial activities depend upon tasks involving manual material handling; these expose workers to considerable risk of injuries causing low back pain and musculoskeletal disorders. A potential solution for this problem presents the use of wearable robots known as exoskeletons. Their purpose is to improve ergonomics and reduce the load...

Background: Robotic therapy (RT) has been internationally recognized for the motor rehabilitation of the upper limb. Although it seems that RT can stimulate and promote neuroplasticity, the effectiveness of robotics in restoring cognitive deficits has been considered only in a few recent studies. Objective: To verify whether, in the current stat...

Background: Many robots are available for gait rehabilitation (BWSTRT and ORET) and their application in persons with SCI allowed an improvement of walking function. Objective: The aim of the study is to compare the effects of different robotic exoskeletons gait training in persons with different SCI level and severity. Methods: Sixty-two stud...

Background: The recovery of walking after stroke is a priority goal for recovering autonomy. In the last years robotic systems employed for Robotic Assisted Gait Training (RAGT) were developed. However, literature and clinical practice did not offer standardized RAGT protocol or pattern of evaluation scales. Objective: This systematic review aim...

Introduction The new Industry 4.0 scenarios offer opportunity for both the prevention of biomechanical overload risks and the implementation of extra return-to-work initiatives for people with disabilities. Wearable assistive devices (e.g., an industrial exoskeleton) can help to lower the risk of acquiring work-related musculoskeletal diseases (WMS...

Introduction Interacting with a continuously changing environment may necessitate cancelling a programmed movement, such as a step, after an environmental change to avoid errors and possible falls. This cancellation is successful if it occurs during the few milliseconds from the Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APA) that precede the step onset, a...

Introduction Human-robot collaboration (HRC) technologies represent one of the new options for the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMDs) [1]. They share the workspace with workers, communicate with them, manage the human partner's flexibility and ergonomics and physically interact, to work together on a common goal [2]. Reconf...

Individuals of working age affected by neuromuscular disorders frequently experience issues with their capacity to get employment, difficulty at work, and premature work interruption. Anyway, individuals with a disability could be able to return to work, thanks to targeted rehabilitation as well as ergonomic and training interventions. Biomechanica...

Occupational back-support exoskeletons see their potential application in many industrial sectors to mitigate low back pain risk for workers performing demanding tasks. This work aims to design and evaluate a control strategy that improves the efficacy of an active exoskeleton by exploiting the raw signal from an accelerometer placed on the user's...

Background: Gait impairments are common disabling symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Among the approaches for gait rehabilitation, interest in robotic devices has grown in recent years. However, the effectiveness compared to other interventions, the optimum amount of training, the type of device, and which patients might benefit most remains un...

This study examined the effect of one-person and two-person team lifting on trunk muscle co-activation and activity and correlated them with the forces at lumbar spine at different risk levels. Eleven healthy subjects performed lifting tasks in the sagittal plane alone and together with another person matched by gender, anthropometry, age, and stre...

Prosthetic gait implies the use of compensatory motor strategies, including alterations in gait biomechanics and adaptations in the neural control mechanisms adopted by the central nervous system. Despite the constant technological advancements in prostheses design that led to a reduction in compensatory movements and an increased acceptance by the...

Lifting tasks are manual material-handling activities and are commonly associated with work-related low back disorders. Instrument-based assessment tools are used to quantitatively assess the biomechanical risk associated with lifting activities. This study aims at highlighting different motor strategies in people with and without low back pain (LB...

The occupational health risks in waste collection workers have been widely investigated. Many studies show that workers are exposed to several risk factors.

The paper describes the activities of the European project SOPHIA, Socio-Physical Interaction Skills for Cooperative Human-Robot Systems in Agile Production. The consortium involves European partners from academia, research organizations and industry. The main goal of the project is to develop a new generation of CoBots and Wearbots and advanced in...

The main objective of industrial exoskeletons is to provide physical assistance to prevent musculoskeletal disorder in workers. A group of active exoskeletons are powered by electrical actuators, in this scenario different challenges appear when modulating the effective active assistance. This paper presents a digital tool set framework as a strate...

This paper presents a back-support exoskeleton concept, which mimics the biological structure of the human back. The design is based on a novel modular flexible mechanism, that allows a complete freedom of movement and a good level of comfort. The assistive forces are transmitted perpendicularly to the body, improving the benefits of the system, an...

Work-related low-back disorders represent the most common and costly musculoskeletal problems, so, recently, industrial exoskeletons have been developed to prevent injury by reducing the load on the back. Their effects are described by a growing body of literature, but is not captured by any standard risk index used in ergonomic practice. This stud...

The biomechanical risk of cashiers in the retail sector has been extensively studied in literature. Despite high back pain prevalence in this sector manual material handling (MMH), instead, seems almost ignored. The aim of our study is MMH risk assessment in a fruit and vegetable department of a supermarket. This task wasn't still investigated, to...

Many scientific papers report that curbside waste collection is a work with high biomechanical load. Our previous papers highlighted the biomechanical risk in this activity and we identified these main risk factors: bad design of equipment, landscape and the number of households covered. The high variability of this task makes it hard to apply stan...

Upper extremities limitation is a common functional impairment in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS). Novel technological devices are increasingly used in neurorehabilitation to support motor function improvement and the quantitative assessment of motor performance during training in patients with neurological diseases. In this review, we syst...

In the last two decades, a growing interest has been focused on gait and balance robot-assisted rehabilitation in children with neurological disabilities. Robotic devices allow the implementation of intensive, task-specific training fostering functional recovery and neuroplasticity phenomena. However, limited attention has been paid to the protocol...

Musculoskeletal diseases and disorders from biomechanical overload are very common among workers. In Italy in2019, occupational diseases of the osteomuscular system and connective tissue accounted for 66% of the total number ofdiseases reported to INAIL. Many factors can contribute to the establishment of a condition of biomechanical overloadand th...

Workers often develop low back pain due to manually lifting heavy loads. Instrumental-based assessment tools are used to quantitatively assess the biomechanical risk in lifting activities. This study aims to verify the hypothesis that high-density surface electromyography (HDsEMG) allows an optimized discrimination of risk levels associated with di...

The purpose of this paper is to assess the biomechanical overload risk of some tasks that are typical of the printing industry, by means of surface electromyography and postural analysis software. In the first task of manual loading, muscle activation percentage duration of the Bicepses and Tricepses were similar for similar duty cycles. The Erecto...

Following our experiences in Italy in Mazara del Vallo and Chioggia Marinas, we had another one in Tunisia in Sfax Marina. Aim of this paper is a biomechanical risk assessment of fishermen working on a vessel smaller than those previously analyzed in Italy and in a different socio-cultural context. The task that involved most of the crew’s working...

Exoskeletons come in a variety of shapes and offer different mechanism to adapt to anthropometrics of different users. However, is not always clear how to relate those regulation mechanisms and anthropometric measurement in order to obtain a proper static fit. To this end, in order to maximize kinematic compatibility, we identify a minimal set of a...

The growing interest in exoskeletons indicates that wearable robotic devices will represent one of the next changes in many occupational scenarios and new challenge for human factors, ergonomics and safety disciplines. Despite the high interest in exoskeletons with an occupational application to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD...

Literature shows that biomechanical risk in kerbside waste collection is high and widespread. The different work environments and working conditions make hard to use standardized protocols. Moreover, the lifting index limitations and restrictions (handling overhead, temperature and humidity) do not allow the use of the NIOSH protocol in this kind o...

Occupational exoskeletons are becoming a concrete solution to mitigate work-related musculoskeletal disorders associated with manual material handling activities. The rationale behind this study is to search for common ground for exoskeleton evaluators to engage in dialogue with corporate Health & Safety professionals while integrating exoskeletons...

Introduction Gait deficits are debilitating in people with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD), which inevitably deteriorate over time. Gait analysis is a valuable method to assess disease-specific gait patterns and their relationship with the clinical features and progression of the disease. Objectives Our study aimed to i) develop an automated diagnostic...

Amputation of a lower limb implies a re-organization in the strategies used to reach a stable walking pattern. The planar covariation law of elevation angles is a well-defined low-dimensional description of the kinematics of movement; according to this law, thigh, shank and foot elevation angle co-vary on a plane, defining a typical gait loop. Howe...

Patients affected by neurological pathologies with motor disorders when they are of working age have to cope with problems related to employability, difficulties in working, and premature work interruption. It has been demonstrated that suitable job accommodation plans play a beneficial role in the overall quality of life of pathological subjects....

Due to the epochal changes introduced by “Industry 4.0”, it is getting harder to apply the varying approaches for biomechanical risk assessment of manual handling tasks used to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMDs) considered within the International Standards for ergonomics. In fact, the innovative human–robot collaboration (HRC) s...

The aim of this study was to investigate the time-varying multi-muscle coactivation function (TMCf) in the lower limbs during gait and its relationship with the biomechanical and clinical features of patients with cerebellar ataxia. A total of 23 patients with degenerative cerebellar ataxia (16 with spinocerebellar ataxia, 7 with adult-onset ataxia...

Data from various countries (USA, Great Britain, Brazil, Italy, India, etc.) shows a significant prevalence and incidence of musculoskeletal disorders in kerbside waste collection workers. We investigated some biomechanical parameters of the task of pouring bins in collection kerb through 3DSSPP software. (v 7.0.6). Bins manual handling was investi...

Background Subjects with transfemoral amputation (TFA) show an asymmetric gait pattern associated with a decreased ability to recover mechanical energy and an increased metabolic cost of walking. Research question This study aimed to identify the spatio-temporal and kinematic gait variables correlated with mechanical energy values in subjects with...

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the level of amputation and various prosthetic devices on the muscle activation of the sound limb in people with unilateral transfemoral and transtibial amputation. We calculated the global coactivation of 12 muscles using the time-varying multimuscle coactivation function method in 37 subjects wit...

Work-related low-back disorders (WLBDs) can be caused by manual lifting tasks. Wearable devices used to monitor these tasks can be one possible way to assess the main risk factors for WLBDs. This study aims at analyzing the sensitivity of kinematic data to the risk level changes, and to define an instrument-based tool for risk classification by usi...

The manual lifting tasks, which occur in the vast majority of workplaces can cause work-related low-back disorders (WLBDs), that are the most common musculoskeletal problems. Recently, to identify the relationship betweenWLBDs and risk factors, wearable monitoring devices-based biomechanical risk assessments have been proposed.The purpose of this s...

Background: The above-knee amputation of a lower limb is a severe impairment that affects significantly the ability to walk; considering this, a complex adaptation strategy at the neuromuscular level is needed in order to be able to move safely with a prosthetic knee. In literature, it has been demonstrated that muscle activity during walking can...

The aim of the present study was to characterize and analyze the most important individual and organizational variables associated with job accommodation in subjects with degenerative cerebellar ataxia by administering a series of international and validated work activity-related scales. Twenty-four workers (W) and 58 non-workers (NW) were recruite...

Repetitive and intensive exercises during robot-aided rehabilitation may expose patients to inappropriate and unsafe postures. The introduction of a sensory feedback can help the subject to perform the rehabilitation task with an ergonomic posture. In this work, the introduction of visual and vibrotactile feedback in a robotic platform for upper li...

The present study’s aim was to identify the kinematic and kinetic gait patterns and to measure the energy consumption in people with amputation according to both the anatomical level of amputation and the type of prosthetic components in comparison with a control group matched for the gait speed. Fifteen subjects with unilateral transtibial amputat...

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The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of a specific training on muscle fatigue by means of the analysis of the amplitude and spectral parameters of surface electromyography. This report is a second part of our first paper on muscle fatigue in high performance pilots. One experienced jet pilot was enrolled for this study. sEMG activity o...

Aim of the study is to compare the most relevant protocols for the assessment of the rehabilitative path of patient with lower limb prosthesis. The first one is the “Timed up and go”, a test created to analyse balance disorders in adults. It was modified to quantify the mobility in adults with different pathologies. The test analyses the transition...

According to ILO, WHO and EU data, the fishing sector is among the most dangerous working sectors. Common standardized protocols for biomechanical risk assessment can hardly be used due to peculiar characteristics of high seas fisheries (exposure to extreme temperatures, boat instability, floor slipperiness). Few studies, carried out in laboratory...

As air travel grows the numbers of passengers with varying degrees of motor disability have grown too. The aim of this study is to analyze the task of pushing Passengers with Restricted Mobility (PRM) on three different wheelchairs (WhCh) currently supplied to PRM service of a Rome airport. The WhChs differed in their width, weight and wheels dimen...

The purpose of this study is to research the risk of biomechanical overload in pathologists during autopsies performed in dissection room. During autopsies, operators are exposed both to the risks of manual handling, in transferring the cadaver from the trolley to the dissection table (and vice versa), and to awkward postures during the incision an...

Biomechanical overload is one of the main risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders among manufacturing workers and so far, it has been evaluated with observational methods. The aim of this research was to introduce a procedure for quantitative biomechanical overload risk assessment in which surface electromyography integrates with a motion captur...

Neck injury because of exposure to increased Gz acceleration is a well-known problem in literature and has been studied by several air forces. Jet pilots reported a high prevalence of neck pain if compared to the general population. Some interventions focused on aircraft design and personal protective equipment, while others were directed toward pi...

Aim of this study is to analyze the task of pushing Passengers with Restricted Mobility (PRM) on three different wheelchairs currently supplied in an Italian airport. The wheelchairs differed in their width, weight and wheel dimensions. We investigated the task with two different PRMs weight (100 and 55 kg) and three different caster wheels positio...

Biomechanical overload represents one of the main risks in the industrial environment and the main possible source of musculoskeletal disorders and diseases. The aim of the this study is to introduce new technologies for quantitative risk assessment of biomechanical overload, by integrating surface electromyography (sEMG) with an innovative motion-...

Due to an error during production, the first author’s name of the published paper [...]

The aims of this study were: to identify surface electromyography (sEMG)-based indices of trunk muscles acquired during the execution of lifting tasks designed using the revised NIOSH lifting equation and featuring a progressively increasing lifting index (LI); to study changes of these indices in relation to the LI; to evaluate the relationship be...

Background: In order to reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) several methods have been developed, accepted by the international literature and used in the workplace. The purpose of this systematic review was to describe recent implementations of wearable sensors for quantitative instrumental-based biomechanical risk ass...

Muscle coactivation is the mechanism that regulates the simultaneous activity of antagonist muscles around the same joint. During walking, muscle joint coactivation varies within the gait cycle according to the functional role of the lower limb joints. In the present study, we used a time-varying multi-muscle coactivation function (TMCf) with the a...

The aim of the study was to analyze the post office user/customer interface, comparing two workstation layouts. The post office clerk was facing the client in one layout and seated at 45° with respect to the counter in the other. We analyzed the most frequent tasks presenting awkward postures: (1) payment of a postal order; (2) accepting a register...

The aim of the study was to provide a biomechanical risk assessment in a mechanical engineering industry using sEMG fatigue parameters. Two experienced right-handed workers were enrolled for the study. sEMG signals were recorded bilaterally from the following upper limb muscles: middle Trapezius, anterior Deltoid, lateral Deltoid and long head of B...

The surface electromyographic (sEMG) data of 12 trunk muscles of 10 workers during the execution of lifting tasks using three lifting indices (LI) were recorded. The aims of this work were to: 1) identify the most sensitive trunk muscles with respect to changes in lifting conditions based on the selected sEMG features and 2) test whether machine-le...

The aims of this study were: (i) to determine kinematic, kinetic, and electromyographic characteristics of Junzuki karate punch in professional karate athletes; (ii) to identify biomechanical parameters that correlate with punch force and lead to a higher punching performance; (iii) to verify the presence of muscle co-activation in the upper limb,...

Introduction According to EU data, the fishing sector is the one with the highest injury rate of all other sectors. Aim of the study is to assess some MMH tasks in which it was possible to use the common standardised protocols in conditions where, although their restrictions, they could provide early indications. Methods NIOSH protocol was used to...

Objective: A comprehensive treatment of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP) should consider the specific pathophysiological changes in the spinal cord. Here we reported a detailed characterization of the spinal motoneuronal output in HSP during locomotion. Methods: We recorded kinematics and electromyographic (EMG) activity of 12 leg muscles in...

Upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders have a 12-month prevalence ranging from 12 to 41% worldwide and can be partly caused by handling low loads at high frequency. The association between the myoelectric manifestation of elbow flexor muscle fatigue and occupational physical demand has never been investigated. It was hypothesized that an...