Development of a novel system to predict the risk of knee injury in athletes using tools suitable for the clinical practice

Abstract

The main goal of the project is to create an integral and portable system to analyse the risk of knee injury in athletes through a jump test. The system, focused in knee injury prevention, presents a high potential to be used to determine the reincorporation to sports practice in the case of injury athletes. The platform will integrate a set of last generation portable systems that will allow the register of biomechanical parameters with a precision comparable to the motion capture labs. The system will integrate and synchronize 3D motion capture cameras to obtain the markers trajectories, which will be placed in specific points on the athlete’s body, of the whole motion with a high frequency rate; instrumented in-sole shoes to obtain the ground reaction forces and moments; and an also instrumented knit pants that can measure the electromyography signal of the desired muscular areas. Kinematics and dynamics, as well as muscular activation of the jump, will be obtained throughout post-processing the data. Afterwards, the results will be used in order to obtain the parameters related with the risk of knee injury in athletes throughout a mathematical model. This model a part from the data obtained from the sensors will have as an input also the physiological and clinical variables of the user. The output of the project will be a tool that could be easily integrated in the daily practice of a clinical or training center.