Preliminary Functionality Tests of an Improved Ankle Rehabilitation Device

The ankle joint is a vital part for human biomechanics and plays a central role in everyday activities. Due to the increased number of injuries to this joint the need and motivation for designing new ankle recovery systems arise. The proposed rehabilitation device was developed to efficiently aid physiotherapists in the recovery process and to facilitate progress monitoring. The improved system offers two degrees of freedom and enables patients to perform plantar flexion/dorsiflexion and inversion/eversion exercises. In contrast to the previous designs of this rehabilitation platform, the authors aim to ensure the alignment of the ankle joint's center and the intersection point of rotation axes for the sole supporting plate, enhancing the recuperation of ankle joint. In this paper some functional tests were perform and discussed for the improved design, in order to validate the theoretical approach.