Background: The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is one of the most common and detrimental knee injuries in athletic activities. Non-contact ACL injuries most commonly occur during movements that involve sudden decelerations, often accompanied by a change of direction, such as the rugby sidestep. Augmented feedback used in ACL injury prevention programs have shown potential to reduce injury risks and shorten intervention time. Currently we are looking at quantifying effects of augmented feedback used during teaching a rugby sidestep task, see if people can be taught to optimise their sidestep style to reduce knee injury risks but still maintain effective performance.
The project is largely experimental based. Students will learn how to perform motion capture using the VICON system and wearable pressure insoles. Human biomechanics analyses will also be carried out to interpret the motion capture data.
Aim: The aim of this project is to determine the feasibility of measuring and analysing a rugby sidestep with the view of providing the player with performance feedback.
Objectives
1. Measure and analyse kinematic variables during various human movements, e.g. walking, running and rugby sidestepping using novel wearable technologies (we have developed in our lab) and VICON motion capture system.
2. Measure and analyse kinetic variables, e.g. the ground reaction forces, using a wearable pressure insole and validated by a force plate.
3. Analyse data in VICON, Matlab, and eventually the joint forces and moments will be determined using the ANYBODY musculoskeletal analysis software.
4. Draw conclusions about a player’s performance of a side step in terms of safety and effectiveness and compare this performance between different players.
Undergraduate
None
Mechatronics Design & Build (201.553, Lab)