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Mueller Sports Medicine: Anatomically tracking knee hinge

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Project Overview

Knee brace hinges utilize a variety of bending mechanisms to minimize lateral movement while allowing flexion and extension of the knee. However, it is a challenge to create a durable hinge that effectively mimics the motion pattern of the bending knee, controls lateral movement, while maintaining a low profile, minimizing weight, and is not prohibitively expensive.

The team will study and describe the motion of the knee during flexion and extension in order to design a knee brace hinge which better mimics the motion of the knee during a bend, thus improving the function of the hinged knee braces. The hinge will need to be designed to function for a variety of end users (i.e. runners, football players, non-athletes). Emphasis will be placed on accommodating the largest number of end users with the minimum number of different hinges, though multiple hinge sizes would be acceptable. A computer model will be built for preliminary testing to ensure adequate strength of the hinge (change of material recommendations or dimension and/or angle changes of components may result from early test results), and a model of the final design will be used to generate a prototype and drawing of the hinge.

Team Picture

Team members from left to right: William Guns, Jacob Andreae, Chiara Sanders, Jeffrey Tsai
Team members from left to right: William Guns, Jacob Andreae, Chiara Sanders, Jeffrey Tsai

Contact Information

Team Members

  • Jacob Andreae - Team Leader
  • Jeffrey Tsai - Communicator
  • William Guns - BSAC
  • Chiara Sanders - BWIG & BPAG

Advisor and Client

  • Prof. Chris Brace - Advisor
  • Dr. Sarah Kuehl - Client

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