The following article is re-published with permission from the Rutgers Focus

Research Roundup: The Rutgers Ankle

by Stacey B. Hersh

Published in the Rutgers Focus of January 29, 1999



First came the virtual-reality rehabilitation glove to treat hand injuries. Now, a team lead by Grigore C. Burdea, director of the Human-Machine Interface Laboratory at the Center for Computer Aids for Industrial Productivity (CAIP), has gone one step further to create the "Rutgers Ankle."

The Rutgers Ankle

The Rutgers Ankle is a complete rehabilitation system that provides a novel and effective way for patients to strengthen muscles, improve their balance and regain use of one of the most important and most often injured joints of the body, the ankle.

The Rutgers Ankle integrates the functions of several different types of standard therapy equipment and modern rehabilitation exercise routines with high-tech robotics and virtual-reality technology to form a single, low-cost, easy-to-operate device that can be used in the comfort of the patient's home.

"The unique design of the ankle device allows for both high and low levels of force to be exerted on the foot in both directions, and it enables the user to move the ankle through its full range of motion, something not many existing rehabilitation devices can do," said Burdea.

The computer-simulation environment will provide a library of virtual rehabilitation exercises, along with a patient database that transparently records progress and allows health practitioners to monitor performance from a remote location.

"The system will offer patients a great variety of exercises in three-dimensional video-game-like style designed to make rehabilitation more effective," Burdea said. "And practitioners will gain the ability to fine-tune the parameters of specific exercises for individual patients."

The Rutgers Ankle prototype design was done by Michael Girone, a junior in the electrical and computer engineering department, together with Burdea and Mourad Bouzit of CAIP. Girone was supported by the National Science Foundation through its Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Additional support came from an SROA grant and the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology.