Evaluation plan of a mechatronic system for Anterior Cruciate Ligament rehabilitation

A great number of disabilities is caused by lower limb injuries, being Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries very common. Research in Robotic and Bioengineering have been addressed to develop robotic systems to carry out automatic processes for the rehabilitation of lower limb injuries or disabilities. However, a comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation plan for these systems, prior the use on human subjects, was not found in the literature. In this paper is proposed a plan to evaluate a lower limb rehabilitation system, focusing on the knee joint, with an integral approach, where mechanical, electronic and user's safety aspects were taken into account. As a result, it was obtained a plan to assess a lower limb rehabilitation system, focused on ACL rehabilitation where an instrumented and configurable dummy was proposed to evaluate the user's safety.