Assessing post-anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction ambulation using wireless wearable integrated sensors

Abstract A hardware/software co-design for assessing post-Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction ambulation is presented. The knee kinematics and neuromuscular data during walking (2-6 km h(-1)) have been acquired using wireless wearable motion and electromyography (EMG) sensors, respectively. These signals were integrated by superimposition and mixed signals processing techniques in order to provide visual analyses of bio-signals and identification of the recovery progress of subjects. Monitoring overlapped signals simultaneously helps in detecting variability and correlation of knee joint dynamics and muscles activities for an individual subject as well as for a group. The recovery stages of subjects have been identified based on combined features (knee flexion/extension and EMG signals) using an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). The proposed system has been validated for 28 test subjects (healthy and ACL-reconstructed). Results of ANFIS showed that the ambulation data can be used to distinguish subjects at different levels of recuperation after ACL reconstruction.