| Group |
2015-2 |
Status |
completed |
| Title |
Next-generation roller skis for realistic dry-land training and intelligent, technique monitor systems for dry-land and snow skiing. |
| Supervisor |
Dr. Glenn Cowan |
| Description |
Roller skis are commonly used by cross-country skiers for off-season training. In order to simulate the grip ability of cross-country skis, roller skis are frequently outfitted with wheels that roll in only one direction. While this provides a means of forward propulsion, one-way wheels provide unrealistically good “grip”. A real cross-country ski requires downward force and an associated weight shift in order to flatten the ski and get grip. Therefore, skiers who train with roller skis are no longer forced to exhibit good technique, potentially learning bad habits in the off-season and ultimately not skiing as well during the winter.
In this project, students will select a clutch technology to allow wheels to roll forward, but with variable resistance to back-slippage. This back-slippage will be modulated by an appropriately designed control strategy taking as input the force applied by the skier. A potentially sophisticated under-the-boot sensor array combined with a dynamical model for the ski will be designed. The exact control dynamics may be determined based on measurements of the grip/slip/glide behavior of real cross-country skis during the winter season.
This is a continuation of a project that was started in the 2014-2015 academic year. During the first year, it became apparent that measuring the technique of skiers on snow skis would also be very valuable.
Students taking on this project will leverage past and on-going work in this area. Future work on the roller skis will need collaboration with mechanical engineering, or ECE students who are competent in mechanical design.
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| Student Requirement |
Electronics, micro-controller programming, programming in high-level languages. DSP, analog filters. An interest in cross-country skiing is an important asset for this project.
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| Tools |
[Software, hardware, test equipment, etc]
Code composer for micro controllers. Scopes etc for the analog interface circuitry.
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| Number of Students |
3 |
| Students |
Eric Potvin
Jing Jing Rong
Gabriel Picotte
Alexandre Picotte |
| Comments: |
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