The investigation and design of a wireless augmented feedback rowing system.

The majority of research associated with the analysis of the rowing stroke is concentrated in laboratories due to the aquatic nature of rowing. The limitations of the tethered connection between the boat and land, has meant that on-water data collection of the rowing stroke has been severely limited. The stroke is a fundamental facet of rowing and can be considered a closed cyclic motor skill which is both physically and technically challenging. Therefore the analysis and optimisation of the rowing stroke technique is of utmost importance to improving performance for rowers of all levels. The aim of this thesis was to investigate and design an inexpensive wireless augmented feedback rowing system with the capabilities of working on water. In order to design the system, a literature review of augmented feedback, the applications used to provide augmented feedback in sport and an investigation into the current commercial wireless technologies available was conducted. This led to the selection of 80.11b as the chosen wireless technology for this study. Investigations into the operating ranges and data rates of 802.11b when integrated with the National Instruments data acquisition hardware and LabView software chosen for the thesis were completed. This revealed the operating range to be valid for up to 200m outdoors and have data rates of 4Mb/s. Furthermore a review of kinematic and kinetic literature associated with the rowing stroke was carried out, with a particular focus on the sensors used in the instrumentation of the rowing boat and the use of feedback in rowing so as to identify the critical areas of the rowing stroke to analyze. These parameters were found to be: the gate angle, the blade angle and the seat position. To measure these parameters, the sensors required needed to be inexpensive and robust. A rotary spindle potentiometer was used to measure the gate angle and two string potentiometers were used to measure the seat position and blade angle. The sensors were verified and validated by comparing their measured values against the Motion Analysis Corporation 3D Eagle camera system and Cortex software. A graphical user interface was designed using National Instruments LabView software to provide visual feedback from the sensor data for the rowing coach to view. This application allows the user to select different graphs relating to the oar, seat and blade. The complete system encompasses the data acquired from the selected sensors being transmitted from data acquisition laptop to the graphical user interface via the 802.11b wireless network. After thorough bench testing of the system, it was concluded that this wireless augmented feedback system for rowing has the required capabilities for on-water testing, the next stage in the systems development.