Exercise Apparatus Sensor Feedback Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional exercise, sport training, and rehabilitation programs often rely on human trainers or therapists for feedback and support, which can be imprecise, subjective, and not tailored to individual needs, lacking real-life relevance and ongoing automation.
Innovation Solution
A training and recovery system with a user interface, links, and joints, equipped with sensors and brakes, that calculates positional data and resistance levels to provide personalized, automated training and recovery programs based on user performance metrics, allowing for virtual and adaptive training.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional exercise programs use human trainers for feedback and support, then personalization and real-time guidance are provided, but precision, objectivity, and consistency of feedback deteriorate due to subjective human observation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical system of human observation and feedback with an automated sensor-based measurement system. Sensors coupled to links and joints objectively track positional data, velocity, acceleration, and trajectory, eliminating subjective human assessment while maintaining personalized training through programmable resistance profiles and adaptive algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous real-time feedback through sensors that monitor user performance metrics (positional data, velocity, acceleration) and provide immediate automated resistance adjustments via brakes. This creates a closed-loop control system that maintains measurement precision while enabling personalization through adaptive resistance based on measured performance.
2Measurement precision
If automated sensors and processors are added to exercise apparatus, then measurement precision and real-time feedback improve, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the measurement system into modular segments: sensors coupled to specific links and joints, processors for data analysis, and brakes for resistance control. Each component performs a specific function, allowing independent optimization and simplifying the overall system architecture while achieving high measurement precision through coordinated operation of segmented components.
3Device complexity
If traditional exercise equipment restricts movement to single plane or isolated muscles, then measurement and control become simpler, but adaptability to real-life multi-planar movements deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The exercise apparatus is designed with multiple links and joints that can accommodate various multi-planar movements and exercise types within a single device. The universal joint structure allows the same apparatus to perform isolated muscle exercises as well as complex functional movements, maintaining control simplicity through standardized sensor and brake integration while achieving movement adaptability through configurable resistance profiles.
Data Source
AI summary
A training, rehabilitation, and recovery system comprises an exercise apparatus including a user interface member coupled to a plurality of links and joints, brakes capable of resisting movement of at least a subset of the links or joints, and sensors capable of sensing movement at the joints or the user interface member. The system also includes a processor configured to receive from the sensors positional data of the links or joints over an initial movement of the apparatus by a user, from which positional coordinates of the user interface member are calculated and a reference trajectory is established. An end space is defined based on the reference trajectory. Over a subsequent movement of the apparatus by the user, the processor receives additional positional data and determines a completion of a repetition based on the positional coordinates of the subsequent movement and the defined end space.