A Soft, Wearable, Quantitative Ankle Diagnostic Device

Approximately 27,000 inversion ankle sprains occur every day in the U.S. Methods Based on discussion with local clinicians and a study of the prior art, we found that measuring ankle power, torque, and angular displacement through the full range of motion could best describe ankle fitness. These measurements must be taken in the frontal plane, since most ankle injuries are related to inversion. As daily life does not typically require maximum torque output, we designed the device to measure up to 30% of maximum ankle torque for an average healthy adult. Other design considerations include a short and intuitive test protocol, ease of donning and doffing, comfort, portability, and cost. The final desig