Patent Application
20220039747
The present invention relates to a mobile apparatus and associated system that is completely or partially automated and is configured to measure surface (e.g., sports turf) characteristics related to performance and safety of athletic apparel and equipment accurately and consistently in an apparel-to-surface interaction, in a manner that is quantifiable and repeatable. This application uses sports turf as an example but is not limited to sports turf, because the invention can be used with non-grass and non-turf surfaces using an appropriate appendage, instrumentation, and/or loads and motions particular to a certain sport (e.g., tennis, baseball, football, soccer, horse racing, and so on). In examples only, sports turf is considered to be any surface, naturally or artificially constituted, prepared for sporting events (e.g., games and matches), within a sport governing body's rules and regulations. For example, it comprises the surface and the immediate underlying environment, managed and prepared for playing such as in American Football and Soccer. With reliable gameday, practice, or other data, cause and risk of injury on natural or synthetic turf, as well as player performance related to the interaction with the surface (footing), can be better understood, predicted, and managed through field, apparel, and equipment characterization and rating(s). Moreover, as described herein, the apparel/surface interaction contributes to athletic performance, which, according to the present invention, could also be better characterized, understood, predicted, and enhanced
Accurately and consistently quantifying surface conditions, as well as the effect of those conditions on athletic apparel in situations and conditions that mimic athletic movement, can be used to reduce athletic injury occurrences, improve player performance, inform selection of athletic apparel and equipment, and establish accurate, independent standards for surface providers, surface installation and maintenance, prevent expensive stadium rework, and can lead to standardizing field and surface assessments across sports fields, including but not limited to American football and soccer, just to name two examples. With the instrumentation, system, products, and methods described herein, and a sport-specific appendage or other instrumented interface, these tests could be performed on clay surfaces (e.g., baseball skins, warning track, tennis courts), hard surfaces (e.g., tennis, pickleball, volleyball, basketball), sand surfaces (e.g., beach volleyball, bocce, horse tracks), and other grassed (artificial or natural) surfaces such as horse tracks and cricket fields/pitches. With the present invention's instrumentation, the apparatus and system could also be used to quantify performance of a golf club or surface by characterizing a club to surface interaction, including an interaction that results in a portion of the playing surface being impacted by the club head. Such testing may also be used in non-athletic environments where synthetic or natural surfaces are utilized. To accomplish adequate testing for quantifying surface conditions and effects of athletic apparel and equipment, the apparatus taught herein uses shear, compressive, torsional forces and moments, and combinations of these three forces in combination, from between slow quasistatic to high-rate impact loading rates. Thus, the apparatus and system can apply shear and compressive forces, and torsional moments, and combine these together into a single motion to more closely mimic behavior of, for example, a human foot, leg, or entire body during an athletic movement, thereby applying and measuring interactions between multiple forces and moments at the same or different times. The tester uses prescribed forces or motions derived from the kinetics and kinematics of athletic participants and/or equipment.
In the National Football League (“NFL”), for example only, there is a significantly different injury rate for lower extremity by different surface types. There have been ongoing attempts to determine why this is; however, the results are inconclusive. This suggests that the data currently being collected can be improved upon. Currently, typically before every game, the turf is manually inspected, and the data is recorded for reference if an injury were to occur.
While current on-field tests include impact hardness, infill depth and evenness, soil moisture content, surface shear resistance using a shear vane, percentage ground cover, visual inspection, and stability rating (post-game), the current tests have proven to be inconsistent, non-comprehensive, and subjective. Injuries continue to be a problem in all sports despite currently available safeguards, and a need exists for an improved way to attempt to decrease athletic injuries across all sports, especially those played on turf.
Mitigation and intervention strategies for injury reduction, however, cannot be developed without athletic performance consideration, as the interaction between the athletes' and the surface require some amount of grip and traction for the athletes to be able to execute motions and maneuvers. Objective characterization of the performance regime is currently lacking. The present invention aims to use biomechanically informed and prescribed forces or motions to objectively characterize the athletic performance regime regarding athlete to surface interaction.
Due to the current limitations, it is an object of the current invention to allow for data collection on, for example, shoe-to-surface interaction resulting from applied forces in order to quantitatively evaluate the shoe/surface mechanical interaction for regimes relevant to both injury and performance as well as related to surface and/or shoe characteristics. In aspects, data collection might include, for example, kinetic and kinematic data during the shoe-surface interaction, measurement of surface characteristics through additional measuring devices, and recording of characteristics of the shoe and/or surface used for the shoe-surface interaction test. Because of the capabilities of the current invention, when injuries occur, the incidence of injury can be traced back to the surface data or apparel data collected by the inventive apparatus and compared amongst other cases of injury or, alternatively, with cases of non-injury. Once common injury and non-injury metrics, along with injury risks are established, by way of example only, mechanical parameters measured can be minimized in the manufacture of turf or athletic apparel and equipment, thereby reducing injuries, and improving performance, based on quantifiable data. To accomplish this, the current invention is, in aspects, mobile and completely or partially automated, and configured to provide reliable data that is repeatable and reproducible.
It is an object of the current invention to test the safety and performance of artificial or natural turf, and/or athletic apparel and equipment, especially shoes including but not limited to cleats, using a shoe-surface tester that determines and analyzes the mechanical interactions between shoes and an athletic playing surface, and performs other measurements commonly taken on sporting surfaces, and/or determines and analyzes whether the shoes and/or playing surface are up to standards and/or deemed safe for athletic events. The device simulates and measures shoe-to-surface interactions at controlled loads and rates, created or generated by athletes during performance up to and including those deemed to be injurious. This involves measuring displacement, velocity, and acceleration components of the appendage, for example a shoe and/or foot-form, in all directions, as well as in rotation, and any combination of these forces at the same or different times. The apparatus may apply or measure all components (dx, dy, dz, rx, ry, rz) of six degrees of freedom forces and moments of the appendage by means of one or an array of independent or overlapping sensors.
The apparatus may use an appendage connected to a system of nested frames, such as Stewart platform, to accomplish this. Thus, the appendage (e.g., cleat) is actuated through its prescribed load or positional path by a mechanism capable of imparting and withstanding the significant forces and moments without unwanted mechanical deformation, friction, or fatigue that might otherwise influence the data collected. In embodiments, the device may also automate or assist with:
It is a further object of the current invention to fully characterize the surface in a way sufficient to direct changes to the surface and/or shoes for improved performance and/or injury prevention. This mechanism will incorporate all or part of the tests in a controlled manner. By actuating test modes, the system can rely on the data being consistent across stadiums as human-to-human variability inherent in testing with manually powered devices is removed from the process. For example, the system may automatically restrict or fix degrees-of-freedom as appropriate for the desired test mode. The system may also automatically raise or lower the appendage for the test, as appropriate. The system may also incorporate locational measurements of the top surface of the test surface into test actuation or data processing. To maintain safety, the system may display the current “state” of the system (for example, whether the system is safe for manual operations or ready to execute a test). Existing tests that will be automated are, by way of example only, surface hardness and/or energy absorption and/or return, infill depth and evenness, soil moisture content, surface shear resistance, and/or percentage ground cover detection. In addition to actuating existing tests, this improved system will also have temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors. Finally, the device can utilize a translation-rotation appendage as in a foot-form that can be shod with various footwear that in turn can engage with the ground to analyze shoe or cleat release dynamics.
The foot-form is representative of an athlete's foot in a cleat or shoe and is interchangeable for customizability. This extremity may have roll, pitch, and yaw adjustability to collect data on varying cleat-to-turf interface angles, as well as allow adjustment of degrees of freedom within the foot-form itself, such as by way of example only, in the angle of the “toe” of the foot-form relative to the rest of the foot-form in order to approximate toe flexion of the foot about the metatarsophalangeal (“MTP”) joint, yet hold these adjustments fixed in a static pose while testing is occurring. The foot-form may also dynamically control and move in roll, pitch, yaw, and/or other degrees of freedom, such as toe angle, while testing is occurring, as appropriate. This end effector will be attached to its translation and rotation actuation mechanism via a multi-axis load cell, in aspects. This load cell will collect force and moment data on the foot-form as it moves relative to the surface via, for example, a data acquisition unit. The data collector, such as a computer, will also be recording data from rotational and translational displacement sensors to detect linear position and velocity of the shoe as well as angular rotations and velocities of the shoe. Accelerations of the foot form may also be measured to either characterize the interaction of the shoe with the surface or to allow characterization of the inertial effects of the device during testing.
In other embodiments, the invention described herein is an apparatus configured to apply controlled shear and compressive forces and rotational moments to an end effector as prescribed, wherein the applied forces and moments mimic a behavior of a human foot or other body part during an athletic movement or reflect forces and/or moments associated with injury and/or performance of a subject's foot or other body part (e.g., the loads generated by football players in the NFL), wherein applying and measuring interactions between prescribed forces, rotational moments, and rotational and linear displacements allows for a safety and/or performance evaluation of a subject, athletic apparel and equipment, or an athletic playing surface.
In another embodiment, the invention described herein is an apparatus configured to apply controlled shear, compressive, and/or rotational displacements to an end effector as prescribed, wherein the applied displacements mimic a behavior of a human foot or other body part during an athletic movement or reflect displacements associated with injury and/or performance of a subject's foot or other body part (e.g., motion profiles resulting from athletic tasks resulting in foot/surface interaction during football playing), wherein applying and measuring interactions between prescribed forces, rotational moments, and rotational and linear displacements allows for a safety and/or performance evaluation of a subject, athletic apparel, or an athletic playing surface.
In another embodiment, the invention described herein might be self-powered and equipped with its own actuation system. Such actuation system may be pneumatic, hydraulic, electric, magnetic, or powered through another mechanism. The invention might also be an attachment to a non-dedicated actuation system, for example, the invention can be integrated with another frame and actuation system and or controlling device.
The accompanying drawings illustrate certain aspects of embodiments of the present invention and should not be used to limit the invention. Together with the written description the drawings explain certain principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to various exemplary embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood that the following discussion of exemplary embodiments is not intended as a limitation on the invention. Rather, the following discussion is provided to give the reader a more detailed understanding of certain aspects and features of the invention.
The present invention can be described in terms of, for example, a foot-form assembly that is preloaded into the ground or turf sample via a tunable vertical load actuator. The apparatus and associated system can impose a controlled constant or variable shear and compressive forces and/or rotational moment on the foot-form assembly while collecting motion profile data on the cleat/shoe as it engages and releases from the surface. In addition to measurement of the displacements associated with applied forces, the system is also capable of logging the minimum required force required to achieve such release from a specific surface. The force and motion profile between a shoe and surface a shoe or cleat motion relative to the surface matters because on one hand, there is a minimum traction requirement to allow athletes to execute their tasks. On the other hand, too much traction can expose an athlete's foot, leg, or other body part to an injurious scenario. The invention disclosed herein objects to objectively quantify such mechanical interaction between the cleat and the surface.
This data, along with existing tests results (which will be automated, in aspects), will all be recorded and saved, in aspects. This data can be used to identify the differences in quality of playing surfaces, for example, natural and synthetic turf, and the quality of athletic apparel and equipment, In addition to data collected during the shoe-surface interaction test, characteristics of the shoe, equipment, or surface used for the test can be saved and linked with the test data.
The current invention allows for closed-loop control, wherein the system is capable of monitoring force or moment being applied and controlling the force or moment in order to, in aspects, maintain a constantly applied force or moment in a controlled and constant manner. However, in aspects, the apparatus does not necessarily need to provide force or torque in a constant manner and situations may arise where force or moment will not be applied in such a manner; rather the applied force or moment will be variable and/or adjustable. In aspects, the system measures impedance, such that it applies a displacement or velocity and measures forces/moments, for example. The system may also apply and measure admittance, therein applying a force/moment and measuring displacement or velocity; thus, the system may be configured to apply a particular force/torque to measure the impact on, for example, an athletic shoe, a human body or body part, and/or natural or synthetic turf.
In some instances, the system will use prior data knowing what forces or torques typically, usually, or sometimes cause injury to maintain input force/torque applied by the apparatus to determine displacement or movement of a shoe, in aspects, for a given shoe-to-surface combination(s). In embodiments, this may result in a rating or ranking of a shoe and/or surface; in aspects, it can be a pass/fail test, meaning a determination is made whether an athlete can use a particular shoe or not based on the pertinent performance and safety test results. Also, based on test results with a given cleat, shoe or generic representation of a shoe-surface interface, the system can verify condition and maintenance of a field, e.g., within tolerances.
In aspects, the current invention tests mechanical interactions between the cleat- or shoe-to-surface interface using a translation test and a rotation test, and force and motion data are recorded via data acquisition, and therefore the system can record accurate and repeatable results. In aspects, the apparatus is configured to collect on-field displacement, velocity, force and torque data, record impact hardness, measure infill (turf), analyze surface stability (grass), read surface moisture content, perform visual inspection (e.g., via camera or drone), and/or upload or download data manually or automatically.
In aspects, the apparatus processes and displays data tailored for a certain target audience. In aspects, there might be some “hard-coded” data with data analysis built in locally, remotely, or on a server. In another example, the analysis may be performed online via analysis of metadata stored in a server.
The system is capable of objectively scoring surfaces and footwear, and evaluating geographical compliance of a surface with a standard or protocol (using, for example, GPS to evaluate an entire field area or a portion of a field area and recommending localized intervention/maintenance).
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In further aspects of the invention, the apparatus can be configured to include some or all the mentioned elements such as line marking, magnetic FOD detection, infill sweeping, testing infill for bacteria agents, automatic data uploading to server, automated all user processes, fully autonomous system, and/or drone assist full field inspection from above.
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Design schematics comprise several other Figures.
In other embodiments of the invention, files comprising the set of computer-executable instructions may be stored in computer-readable memory on a single computer or distributed across multiple computers or involve a network of remote servers hosted on the internet. In aspects, local, edge, or remote computing possibilities are used to store, manage, and process data. A skilled artisan will further appreciate, in light of this disclosure, how the invention can be implemented, in addition to software, using hardware or firmware. As such, as used herein, the operations of the invention can be implemented in a system comprising a combination of software, hardware, or firmware.
Embodiments of this disclosure include one or more computers or devices loaded with a set of the computer-executable instructions described herein. The computers or devices may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the one or more computers or devices are instructed and configured to carry out the calculations, processes, steps, operations, algorithms, statistical methods, formulas, or computational routines of this disclosure. The computer or device performing the specified calculations, processes, steps, operations, algorithms, statistical methods, formulas, or computational routines of this disclosure may comprise at least one processing element such as a central processing unit (i.e., processor) and a form of computer-readable memory which may include random-access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM). The computer-executable instructions can be embedded in computer hardware or stored in the computer-readable memory such that the computer or device may be directed to perform one or more of the calculations, steps, processes, and operations depicted and/or described herein.
Additional embodiments of this disclosure comprise a computer system for carrying out the computer-implemented method of this disclosure. The computer system may comprise a processor for executing the computer-executable instructions, one or more electronic databases containing the data or information described herein, an input/output interface or user interface, and a set of instructions (e.g., software) for carrying out the method. The computer system can include a stand-alone computer, such as a desktop computer, a portable computer, such as a tablet, laptop, PDA, or smartphone, or a set of computers connected through a network including a client-server configuration and one or more database servers. The network may use any suitable network protocol, including IP, UDP, or ICMP, and may be any suitable wired or wireless network including any local area network, wide area network, Internet network, telecommunications network, Wi-Fi enabled network, or Bluetooth enabled network. In one embodiment, the computer system comprises a central computer connected to the internet that has the computer-executable instructions stored in memory that is operably connected to an internal electronic database. The central computer may perform the computer-implemented method based on input and commands received from remote computers through the internet. The central computer may effectively serve as a server and the remote computers may serve as client computers such that the server-client relationship is established, and the client computers issue queries or receive output from the server over a network.
The input/output interfaces may include a graphical user interface (GUI) which may be used in conjunction with the computer-executable code and electronic databases. The graphical user interface may allow a user to perform these tasks through the use of text fields, check boxes, pull-downs, command buttons, and the like. A skilled artisan will appreciate how such graphical features may be implemented for performing the tasks of this disclosure. The user interface may optionally be accessible through a computer connected to the internet. In one embodiment, the user interface is accessible by typing in an internet address through an industry standard web browser and logging into a web page. The user interface may then be operated through a remote computer (client computer) accessing the web page and transmitting queries or receiving output from a server through a network connection.
The present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments having various features. In light of the disclosure provided above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the practice of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. One skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosed features may be used singularly, in any combination, or omitted based on the requirements and specifications of a given application or design. When an embodiment refers to “comprising” certain features, it is to be understood that the embodiments can alternatively “consist of” or “consist essentially of” any one or more of the features. Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention.
It is noted that where a range of values is provided in this specification, each value between the upper and lower limits of that range is also specifically disclosed. The upper and lower limits of these smaller ranges may independently be included or excluded in the range as well. The singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary in nature and that variations that do not depart from the essence of the invention fall within the scope of the invention. Further, all of the references cited in this disclosure are each individually incorporated by reference herein in their entireties and as such are intended to provide an efficient way of supplementing the enabling disclosure of this invention as well as provide background detailing the level of ordinary skill in the art.
The present application is a divisional of and relies on the disclosures of and claims priority to and the benefit of the filing dates of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/192,752, filed Mar. 4, 2021, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/985,126, filed Mar. 4, 2020. The disclosures of those applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. Information from the following related website is also hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety: https://www.figma.com/proto/PeRRW6ZRPMwgMkVAZ4n6yl/BEAST-UI?node-id=4%3All&viewport=9974%2C-566%2C0.7194263339042664&scaling=min-zoom
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62985126 | Mar 2020 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17192752 | Mar 2021 | US |
| Child | 17509422 | US |
