The Breast Impact Monitoring System: A Portable and Wearable Platform to Support Injury Prevention in Female Athletes

TL;DR

A new wearable system was created to monitor breast impacts in female athletes, helping prevent injuries and improve protective gear.

Contribution

The first portable system to objectively measure breast impact forces in sports settings, enabling injury research and equipment evaluation.

Findings

The system achieved high accuracy in measuring forces up to 550 N during rugby tackling trials.

Validation showed a strong calibration model (R²=0.9988) against reference instruments.

The system successfully captured high-speed data at 856 Hz per channel for impact mapping.

Abstract

What are the main findings?
A novel portable, wireless, and wearable sensing system was developed and validated for monitoring localised breast impacts in female athletes.The system provides reliable tackling and laboratory measurements suitable for sports injury research and protective equipment testing.

A novel portable, wireless, and wearable sensing system was developed and validated for monitoring localised breast impacts in female athletes.

The system provides reliable tackling and laboratory measurements suitable for sports injury research and protective equipment testing.

What is the implication of the main finding?
Enables systematic investigation of breast injury mechanisms and the evaluation of protective strategies in women’s sport.Demonstrates broader potential for wearable impact monitoring in health, ergonomics, and sports biomechanics applications.

Enables systematic investigation of breast injury mechanisms and the evaluation of protective strategies in women’s sport.

Demonstrates broader potential for wearable impact monitoring in health, ergonomics, and sports biomechanics applications.

This study presents the design and preliminary validation of a novel portable, wireless, and wearable sensing system—The Breast Impact Monitoring System (BIMS)—for female athletes, developed to monitor and quantify localised mechanical impacts to the breast during high-intensity sporting activity. The platform addresses a critical gap in sports biomechanics by enabling, for the first time, objective measurement of breast forces in both controlled mechanical impact testing and preliminary on-body tackling trials for female athletes. Its application extends to advancing understanding of sports-related breast injuries, informing prevention strategies, and assessing the effectiveness of protective equipment. The BIMS leverages an array of 16 thin-film Force Sensitive Resistors (FSRs) and employs a dual-core microcontroller architecture to manage the trade-off between wireless constraints and high-speed data fidelity, successfully achieving uninterrupted acquisition at 856 Hz for each channel. The system was rigorously validated against a reference instrument using a commercial Force Plate and a custom mechanical drop rig, demonstrating high accuracy with a calibration model (R2=0.9988). Preliminary wearable testing confirmed the system’s capability to detect and spatially map high localised impact forces, including peak forces up to 550 N (across an area diameter of 20 mm), during preliminary rugby tackling activities. By offering a practical and scalable solution for capturing previously inaccessible data, this system establishes a foundation for future research into athlete welfare and long-term breast health.

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