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

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.