Design of a motorized wobble board for load sustainable rehabilitative training of patients with severe ankle injuries

The ankle is one of the most commonly injured areas among athletes and other physically active people. Appropriate ankle rehabilitation is necessary to prevent chronic ankle injuries and ensure proper movement patterns for physical activity. A patient is typically prescribed exercises with a non-motorized wobble board and instructed to actively engage in several range of motions including dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, inversion, eversion, and circumduction. A patient can progress by adding weight bearing exercises to increase the demand of the damaged structures. However, patients with severe ankle injuries may not be able to participate in active motion with the non-motorized wobble board, decreasing efficacy. This design introduces a multi-planar motorized wobble board for patients with severe ankle injury that need passive mobility and sustainable loads which can be controlled. The passive mobility allows progress towards recovering a natural range of motion (ROM) during the early stages of an injury and enhance the healing process.