Increase in muscle fatigue and improper biomechanics can lead to certain injuries in athletes. In track and field, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries can be seen in female long and triple jumpers. The changes in muscle activation as well as other changes in biomechanics are key indicators of potential risk of this injury. Our team worked with the WPI Women’s Track and Field team in order to develop a MATLAB code that detects and determines changes that are related to the cause of ACL injuries which then recommends the athlete to stop activity. Indicators of fatigue that the team analyzed were knee valgus positioning, knee flexion angle, hip vertical velocity, and average angular velocity. Based on the data collected, our device alerts when an athlete’s hip vertical velocity reaches above 3 m/s or if the knee angular velocity is above -1000 degrees/s after halfway through the jump and if the knees are in valgus positioning, as this could potentially indicate fatigue.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Mattson, Michaela
• Martin, Dreya
• Jumpp, Cayla
• Shulenburg, Emma
• Boynton, Sarah

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 106126
• E-project-042723-123408

Keyword

• biomechanics
• motion capture
• track and field
• acl

Advisor

• Ayobami, Funmi
• Reidinger, Zoe

Year

• 2023

Date created

• 2023-04-27

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biomedical Engineering

Source

• E-project-042723-123408

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2023-06-14