Understanding and managing the relationship between soldier burden, mobility and susceptibility to enemy fire in the Canadian Armed Forces

加拿大武装部队(CAF)对加拿大人起着至关重要的作用，为加拿大国内和国际的安全与合作做出了贡献。下马的士兵在完成与工作相关的任务时，身体要求很高，身上背着沉重的负担和装备。考虑到这些职业需求，士兵在工作中遭受肌肉骨骼损伤的比例很高也就不足为奇了。在携带作战有效性所需的重载和相关的机动性缺陷之间存在权衡，这可能会降低性能，并可能导致暴露在敌人火力之下的可能性增加。此外，还有其他因素可能有助于减少士兵的机动性。这项工作的目的是确定如何管理和理解士兵在执行高体力要求任务时，沉重的负重负荷、肌肉骨骼损伤风险和灵活性之间的关系。我们的目标是通过各种方法来探讨这些问题，包括在类似于部署时所经历的暴露的训练演习中观察士兵。基于这些经验，我们将制定系统的测试程序，以隔离组成与工作相关的任务的动作，并测试在实验室环境中负荷的影响。最后，我们将使用统计程序和机器学习方法，以预测士兵在以前未经测试的新型装载场景中的机动性。这项工作的目标是帮助理解负重负荷如何增加士兵受伤的风险和降低他们的表现。与加拿大国防研究发展局(DRDC)和加拿大Mawashi科技公司结成的强有力的政府-行业合作伙伴关系将确保项目的成功以及研究成果的双重使用。

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) play an essential role to Canadians, contributing to the security andco-operation of Canada both domestically and internationally. Dismounted soldiers carry heavy loads andequipment on their body while completing work-related tasks with heavy physical demands. Given theseoccupational demands, it is not surprising that soldiers experience a high proportion of musculoskeletal injuriesat work. A trade-off exists between carrying heavy loads that are necessary for operational effectiveness andthe associated deficits in mobility, which can reduce performance and potentially lead to an increased exposureto enemy fire. In addition, there are other factors that can contribute to reductions in mobility in soldiers. Theaim of this work is to determine how to manage and understand the relationships between heavy carried loads,musculoskeletal injury risk and mobility in soldiers during highly physically demanding tasks. We aim toexplore these issues through a variety of approaches, including observing soldiers during training exercises thatare similar to exposures experienced while deployed. Based on these experiences, we will develop systematictesting procedures to isolate the movements that make up the work-related tasks and test the effect of load in alaboratory environment. Finally, we will use statistical procedures and machine learning approaches in order topredict the mobility of soldiers in novel loading scenarios that were not previously tested. The goal of thiswork is to contribute to an understanding of how carrying heavy loads can increase injury risk and reduceperformance in soldiers. Strong government-industry partnerships with Defence Research DevelopmentCanada (DRDC) and Canadian firm Mawashi Science and Technology will ensure project success as well asthe dual-use of the research findings.