Moritz / Haake The Engineering of Sport 6

Volume 3: Developments for Innovation
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-0-387-45951-6
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 440 Seiten

This proceedings volume of the ISEA 2006 examines sports engineering, an interdisciplinary subject which encompasses and integrates not only sports science and engineering but also biomechanics, physiology and anatomy, and motion physics. This is the first title of its kind in the emerging field of sports technology.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Moritz, Eckehard

Haake, Steve

Leseproben

"The Application of Inertial Sensors in Elite Sports Monitoring (p. 289-290)

Daniel A. James
Griffith University, Australia, [e-mail]

Abstract. Arguably the performance of elite athletes today has almost as much to do with science, as it does with training. Traditionally the measurement of elite athlete performance is commonly done in a laboratory environment where rigorous testing of biomechanics and physiology can take place. Laboratory testing however places limits on how the athlete performs, as the environment is sufficiently different to the training environment.

In addition, performance characteristics are further augmented during competition when compared to regular training. By better understanding athlete performance during the competition and training environment coaches can more effectively work with athletes to improve their performance. The testing and monitoring of elite athletes in their natural training environment is a relatively new area of development that has been facilitated by advancements in microelectronics and other micro technologies.

Whilst it is a logical progression to take laboratory equipment and miniaturize it for the training and competition environment, it introduces a number of considerations that need to be addressed. In this paper the use and application of inertial devices for elite and sub-elite sporting activities are discussed. The capacity of accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure human motion thousands of times per second in multiple axis and at multiple points on the body is well established.

However interpretation of this data into well-known metrics suitable for use by sport scientists, coaches and athletes is something of a challenge. Traditional brute force techniques such as achieving dead reckoning position and velocity by multiple integration are generally regarded as an almost impossible task. However novel derivative measures of performance such as energy expenditure, pattern recognition of specific activities and characterisation of activities into specific phases of motion have achieved greater success interpreting sensor data.

1 Introduction

Athletic and clinical testing for performance analysis and enhancement has traditionally been performed in the laboratory where the required instrumentation is available and environmental conditions can be easily controlled . In this environment dynamic characteristics of athletes are assessed using treadmills, rowing and cycling machines and even flumes for swimmers . In general these machines allow for the monitoring of athletes using instrumentation that cannot be used in the training environment but instead requires the athlete to remain quasi static thus enabling a constant field of view for optical devices and relatively constant proximity for tethered electronic sensors, breath gas analysis etc.

Today however by taking advantage of the advancements in microelectronics and other micro technologies it is possible to build instrumentation that is small enough to be unobtrusive for a number of sporting and clinical applications (James, Davey and Rice 2004). One such technology that has seen rapid development in recent years is in the area of inertial sensors . These sensors respond to minute changes in inertia in the linear and radial directions.

These are known as accelerometers and rate gyroscopes respectively. This work will focus on the use of accelerometers, though in recent years rate gyroscopes are becoming more popular as they achieve mass-market penetration, thus increasing availability and decreasing cost and device size. Accelerometers have in recent years shrunk dramatically in size as well as in cost (-$US20)."