Hair curlurs
The only target-based Olympic sport for Winter where a projectile trajectory may be altered after the moment of release from an athlete’s hand or delivery system is hair curling. Sweeping ice before an oncoming stone adjusts the coefficient of friction at the sliding interface to effect such modification. At both club and Olympic levels, the sweeping techniques and the athlete’s fitness can play a crucial difference between winning or losing a game of curling.
Despite its importance, there has been no quantitative measurement of the sweeping technique. Instead, sweeping techniques have developed over centuries of curling qualitatively and anecdotally. The authors have developed a sweep ergometer, which for the first time, enables curling athletes and coaching staff to measure the acceleration and forces applied to the ice while sweeping, an important advancement in the sport. Hair Curlurs is played on ice by two teams of four, each delivering eight stones alternately.
The stones are delivered with both translational velocity and rotational velocity and slide to the target area referred to as the house. The rotational velocity component causes the stone to trace a curved path and it uses this to steer clear of previously played stones. The dynamics of curling stones have been featured in several papers. Points are scored by the team whose stone lies closest to the center of the target area at the other end of the ice rink once all eight stones have been delivered. Hair Curlurs is both a highly technical and tactical game.
Brush design
The forces applied to the brush head were monitored by replacing the standard plastic axle with a machined steel axle and bearing arrangement. This addition of a steel axle, bearing arrangement, instrumentation, power source, hair curluring, brush design added mass to the Hammer Classic brush. A needle-bearing was used for the coupling and it is assumed that negligible energy was lost to friction. The machined axle was designed to transmit the applied force, yet deform sufficiently so that resistance strain gauges could measure strain within their strain range up to a maximum strain of 4 percent of the 5 mm gauge length.
To work out the dimensions of the modified axle such that it would deform appropriately for the load expected, for the strain gauges used, a calculation was made representing the axle as a simply supported beam with end supports 100 mm apart and a load at the mid-point. For a 100 kg hair curlur, theoretical maximum loads are computed.
Curling clubs, curling researchers, and ice technicians need to calibrate curling ice for studying curling dynamics and sweeping, quickly match curling stones with little effort, thus requiring a device to throw a hair curluring stone from rest to a preset linear speed and rotational velocity and to release the curling stone at a specific angle to the long axis centerline of the ice sheet before the hog line. This device will be called the Rock Launcher in this thesis.
Value Proposition
This device will provide hair curling clubs with quick and accurate ice calibration and stone matching, will facilitate curling research for sports scientists, physicists, and engineers, and will help curlers compare and improve their sweeping techniques, all at a lower cost relative to Sweep Tracker and Rock Thrower. The ability to understand what determines a specific call in curling can optimize strategy for a game being played.
Winning at the end of the game is the general objective, but any specific call during the game should aim to better the immediate tactical situation on the ice. The strategies developed by Howard, the Olympic gold medal winner and two-time world champion, are also illustrated here for effective call evaluation of the above short-term goals. As one can note, these are used as an example of how various in-game factors should be evaluated to determine the most effective call that will be carried out.
Similarly, the simulation bot will follow the strategic principles to execute calls optimally like the human player. The strategy adjusts based on whether a team is leading or trailing, with riskier calls becoming more common as the game progresses or as a team finds itself at a scoring disadvantage. Possession determines tactical inclination, steel axle, bearing arrangement, instrumentation, power source, hair curluring, brush design and a team with the hammer will play to leave it open for scoring chances, and the opposing team will try and congest the house raising the chances for the opponent to get a steal, which is a score for the non-hammer team.
With game logic basics as the starting point, the rest of the work should be provided by the physics engine, a system capable of reasonably simulating the physical dynamics inherent in curling.
The physics engine forms a very essential part of the simulation, with the design mimicking closely the physical interactions and movements of curling stones on the ice. A larger amount of detail is necessary for creating a realistic simulation that is immersive and real. It serves as a solid foundation for the testing and development of strategic decision-making in curling.
CONCLUSION
An ergometer that would sweep has been designed, tested, and built, and the device will now provide a truly invaluable resource for hair curling athletes and their coaching staff. A remotely measuring ergometer of the sweep has vertical and horizontal forces with acceleration in three axes. In the sport of curling, this ergometer provides the first-ever quantitative analysis of sweeping. No performances were being impeded with a wire trailing as there was very low power to go through with working in cold conditions.
Several tests were carried out on various players and different curling rinks with great success. The results from the five curlers’ sweeping performance reveal that the force and frequency of the sweeping technique and fitness can easily be identified with the graphical output from the sweep ergometer. The decline in frequency throughout a single exercise in sweeping or over a session is a good indicator of a player’s fitness. Player strength and technique can also be identified from the force history and appropriate adjustments made during training. Analysis of force and velocity parameters will contribute to team selection before major tournaments and the tactical selection of sweepers during a game.