Advanced Biomechanical and Physiological Monitoring System for Amputees and Rehabilitating Personnel

This SBIR Phase I project will develop a health and motion monitoring sensor and analysis system to support the return of military personnel with prosthetic devices to active duty. DoD is allowing increasing numbers of Soldiers with prosthetics to return to active duty if they are performance capable, minimizing the loss of their valuable core expertise to the services. There are significant challenges to monitoring physiological/biomechanical parameters of rehabilitating personnel in a non-laboratory environment and providing useful performance capability assessment data. This project will demonstrate that a small, non-intrusive sensor system can be developed using modifications and integration of existing TenXsys technologies that can provide real time and long-term data recording of human movement patterns and energy expenditure through motion and physiological monitoring. TenXsys, in conjunction with the Center for Orthopedic and Biomechanics Research will produce a field-capable Sensor Monitoring and Relay Transmission (SMART) system that will improve amputee monitoring, decreasing the likelihood of injuries due to overexertion and balance instability events. This effort will demonstrate the SMART system capabilities and its advanced capability potential for wireless operations and near-real time monitoring and analysis of physiological/biomechanical parameters by external monitors, such as PCs and cell phones.