Researchers at South Australia-based Flinders University Medical Device Research Institute implemented robotics to research the impact that bending and twisting movements can have on back pain, ABC.net.au reports.
Here are five details:
1. Using a robot named Hexapod to replicate a year's worth of lifting a 20-kilogram [44 pound] box, researchers analyzed motions that may increase an individual's risk of sustaining a lumbar disc herniation.
2. Researchers made Hexapod bend and twist on sections of the cadaveric human spine while holding the weighted box.
3. Through tracking the robot's disc failure patterns, researchers found around half of the spines failed through slipped discs while the remaining discs failed through bone injuries.
4. Flinders University PhD candidate Dhara Amin said the results differed from the original hypothesis that all the specimens would fail by slipped discs.
5. Researchers concluded there needs to be more research conducted on the different causes of spinal injuries to develop better prevention protocols and safe lifting techniques for manual labor workers and people within industries that involve repetitive heavy lifting.