Preliminary results and evaluation of an ankle rehabilitation device

Abstract

The motivation for designing a new recovery system was based, first of all, on the increased incidence of injuries to the ankle joint. Medical recovery techniques can be applied either by physiotherapists or by robotic systems capable of helping/assisting the physiotherapist, in order to obtain an efficient recovery process. A novel ankle rehabilitation device is being developed, allowing progress monitoring by therapists. The system will allow patients to perform two kinds of exercises (planter flexion/dorsiflexion and inversion/eversion), hence will own two degrees of freedom. All the required values of the angular amplitudes of the rotational movements are set by the therapist via computer-generated graphical interface. The patients' exercise is recorded on the host PC for evaluation and progress monitoring. Preliminary results and evaluation of first patient are discussed in this paper. Future medical trials are required to establish the maximum clinical efficacy in rehabilitation.