Wireless Sensor System for Rugby Impact Assessment

Wireless Sensor System for Rugby Impact AssessmentThere is upsurge of advantages in playing sports, whether it is for pure plea incontestable or profession altogethery, even this can carry irreversible consequences. Any injury is bad news and later on life the impose on _or_ oppress tends to come back ten times worse than when the injury first occurred. The worst of injuries are the ones that can cause brain damage, standardized calamitys, which are genuinely common in connection sports such as rugger. Do practitioners calculate the risk every time they take part in the respective contact sport, or do they just think about the present moment and carry on? Do practitioners know the consequences of brain damage such as dementia and memory loss, or do they think that dislocating a knew or a shoulder are the worst injuries that can guide as it would prevent them from playing, can injuries be prevented or reduced or will the game always be dangerous, these are a couple of triba l chief that I take up and hope accomplish in the end of this go through. A survey elaborated by me, al subalterned me to acquire contrasting answers from 100 practitioners of diametric contact sports and it proved that most people dont know fully the risks of playing contact sports.Throughout the years, the rate and severity of injuries in sports have drasti shouty ontogenesisd. Athletes tend to acquire bigger, faster and stronger. In contact sports such as rugby, boxing, American football, etc., athletes and enthusiasts risk their health and well-being exposing their bodies to the stress and injuries present in sports. This thesis is more rivet on head injuries, concussions to be specific. Concussions or any brain damage tend to affect the athletes broadly later on in life, causing dementia, permanent headaches, dizziness, difficulty concentrating or completing tasks, irritability, anxiety, memory loss, the list goes on.Anyone that has ever played a sport and had an injur y, is now more aware than before of the risks of playing any(prenominal) sport the person was playing when the injury occurred. Not that being aware is going to prevent injuries, but at least the practitioner wont be surprised when some thing unexpected surpasss or at least the practitioner will be in a position where he can decide if is really worth the risk.1.1. MotivationAs a sports enthusiast I have always been interested in sport, and I have always practiced sports. summertime of 2012 I started playing American football, I loved the rush of the game and the fact that I was so fast that they couldnt catch me. As months went by, the whole squad was getting ready for the beginning of the season, everyone was becoming bigger, faster, and stronger, and therefore the impacts during collisions and tackles were becoming more taxable on the body. It was part of the routine to do an exercise we employ to call Bull fight, where we knock heads against each other so we can get used to th e impact. The first time I did this I felt dizzy, but as a teenager I didnt think much about it. First game of the season, I was getting ready to score my first ever touchdown, I got tackled. I was unconscious on the floor for two minutes, they said. I was interpreted to the local doctor for a quick check up to make sure everything was ok with me. The doctor said that I most definitely have had concussion. After I have done some research into the topic, I bod of realised the risk I was exposing myself too, every time I carried an American football. When we talk about American football, every contact sport serves as standard and in this dissertation we will focus more on rugby.My main motivation to do this project is the fact that I believe that a major part of the population that practices sports, specifically contact sports, dont know the consequences on the long run of doing so. I hope that with the realisation of this project I can get to an impact towards sports enthusiasts like myself, not in a way to make them give up on the sport, but at least they will be aware of their actions, and maybe adopt the use of safer gear when playing the sport, as most shams dont use the equipment available like the rugby helmet.And my question are Do athletes or enthusiasts really know what type of circumstances and risks they are exposing themselves to? And can this injuries be prevented or can the risk exposure be reduced?1.2.Aims and objectivesThe dissertation will focus on the design and testing of a neck portable system capable and efficient at monitoring the linear and angulate head acceleration, which has been described as a very efficient way of assessing the force impact that players go through during practice or a upright game, as shall be demonstrated during this thesis.The main aims of this project is to conduct background research on rugby injuries statistics, accelerometers and portable sensors, to find the best design for this project, apparatus and t est it using an Arduino chip, to calibrate the system against involuntary accelerations, to investigate the portability, usability and applicability in rugby and other contact sports, and to demonstrate the collected results and visualisation.In rule to conclude this project successfully a general insight will be acquired through background research. Therefore the variance 2.1 will represent an in depth research about injuries in rugby, a comparison between youngsters, seniors and professional players, section 2.2 will explain the concepts related to accelerometers, different types of accelerometers, price ranges, advantages and disadvantages of each, section 3 will focus on the importance of measuring rod the linear and angular head acceleration, section 4 will explain the two different types of interface, SPI and I2C, and detail the I2C interface as is the interface that is going to be used during this project, section 5 will demonstrate the design and implementation of the pro ject by displaying pictures of the first prototype, and final project, the reason why such design was chosen and all the steps followed, finally the section 6 will demonstrate all the testing done in different scenarios, and respective results of the prototype and the final project, all represented using, graphs and tables . Since the project is also an investigation on how efficient the project is going to be during a game or practice, some ideas and small tests will be carried out in the end.An equipment of this category, will be really effectual in any contact sport, as it will provide important information to monitor the force exerted towards a head, and carry on further studies in the area of concussions and other brain damages that frequently occur in rugby players, or other athletes performing contact sports. It can also increase the attention towards adopting safer protective gear.2.1 Rugby injuriesHead injuries are really frequent in contact sports such as rugby, occurrin g more in situations like the scrum, head impacts on the floor, etc. The most common head injury is called concussion, however thats the most minor kind of head injury (Lava). A concussion occurs at 90 to 100 g-force, equivalent to a head impact of 20mph (Gorgens, 1). 65% of head injuries occurred in rugby are laceration, 17% concussions and 9% are fractures to the skull (Kaplan et al. 91). collectable to the extravagantly guess of head injury, the RFU (Rugby Football Union) has found ways to prevent these unfortunate situations. Some of them being laws, regulations, guideline based on research evidence, concussion awareness, first aider and health care and professional player testing courses.Rugby Union is on a pinnacle of success and popularity (Edgar, 1995), this attracts the media, the media attracts the population, therefore the interest for the sport, practitioners, researches and experiments increase exponentially as well, placing more emphasis on finding ways to protect o ur athletes.A study carried out by UU at prepares in northern Ireland discovered a high rate of severe injury in rugby to rugby players in schools (Meredith, 2016). A total of 825 students from 28 different school teams participated in the study during 2014/2015, which resulted in 426 injuries, 204 of them resulting in an incapability of practicing the sport for an average of four weeks. One in four rugby players will suffer an injury, 55% of the injuries occur during a tackle, 78% of concussions specifically occur during a tackle, 13% are knee injuries, 7% hand injuries, 10% concussions, 11% ankle injuries, 10% shoulder ligament injuries and 5% shoulder dislocation. After calculating it reveals that it occurs trine concussions per team. Young athletes are more vulnerable to concussion and may be affected by more complicated recovery times and higher risk of adverse outcomes. (Meredith, 2016). On 29 Of January of 2011 a drastically accident happened to a young player, 14 years ol d named Ben Robinson while playing rugby union for his school team. During the game he had three impacts to the head, on each impact he was taken off the field and put back, on the fourth impact he collapsed and died later on in the hospital (Bull, 2013).As cases like the death of Ben Robinson happen once in a while it will automatically increase the urgent increase for awareness, researches and solutions to this problem. Enforcing the laws of the game is definitely one, thats things like looking at the round top of the tackle, ensuring that its interpreted properly, and teaching good tackling technique, (Bleakley, 2015). Some rules that could be applied would be in case of a brain injury like concussion the player shouldnt play for at least 30 days, like applied in boxing, the player shouldnt have to play under effect of pharmaceuticals to dont feel the damage caused by the injury suffered, among other rules.Rugby is the sport with highest risk of injury. It was stated that Parado xically at the international level, where the game is fastest and most spectacular, evidence shows that fitness and begin considerably reduce the injury rate. (Addley and Farren, 1988), however a research carried out in English premiership honorary society and schools rugby union, concluded that the rate of injuries in academy and school youth rugby union and fairly lower than the rate of risks recorded for senior elite rugby union (Palmer-Green, Trewartha and Stokes, 2009). Personally I dont discipline with the first statement, as the higher the level of the game, the higher the physical characteristics of the players and the faster the pace of the game, which increases the strength of collision involved.As the years go by, the rugby rules have been changing trying to create a safer way to play the game, however is still not good enough, It still a really high chance of injury by playing the sport. Is understandable if someone adult knows the risk of playing the game, accepts it and takes responsibility upon any consequences, but maybe anyone under 18 that is not capable of making the best decisions shouldnt play such an aggressive game or at least with not as much contact as they do.2.2 AccelerometersAn accelerometer senses positive and negative accelerations of a body. It works by sensing the acceleration of gravity and allows us as well based on the results produced, to calculate the concern of the acceleration. It uses the technology MEMS, that stands for Microelectromechanical systems, however thats the term used in the United States of America, In United Kingdom the term used is MST, that stands for microsystems technology (Maluf and Williams, 2004). MEMS are similar to an coordinated circuit but they are mechanical. The technique used to make MEMS are the same as the technique used to make electronics, microfabrication, but instead its make small mechanical structures that can interface with electronics (Afrotechmods, 2014).Acceleration is the rate at which the velocity of a body changes with time (Nistic, 2013).Accelerometers can be used for different applications. They can be used for automotive applications such as airbags control, motion sensing, GPS, navigation. They can be used in seismometers, camera stabilization, to play games, smartphones, etc.2.2.1 sense functionsAn accelerometer has six sensing functionsMovement covers motion control and general movement detectionFall identifies that a large impact is highly likely to happen. croupe be used for motion controlTilt can be applied to mobile phones to detect whether is facing up or down, text scrolling, liquid crystal display projection, user interfacing, image rotating, camera stability, etc.Positioning requires more complex algorithms than the others. It can be used in a GPS and personal navigation traumatise Can be used in situations of shipping and handling, car event data recorders and hard disk drive protectionVibration Mostly used in cases where high sen sitivity and high frequency accelerometers are needed. Such as seismic activity monitors and acousticsFor every situation there will be the best choice of accelerometer, as every range of acceleration has different applications. For example fault detection and tilt control is in the range of 1G to 2G, saccade detection lands on the 2G to 8G range, vibration 8G to 10G range, an odometer 20G to 30G range, a car crash can range from 20G to 250G and a bullet can go up to 5000G (G. Ogden, 1895).When measuring free fall the values can be positive or negative, and for best results it requires a height of at least one meter. There is three types of freefall, linear, rotational and projectile. A linear freefall, is when there is a drop from certain height straight to the, a rotational freefall is the same as the linear freefall, however a spin or rotation is added to the travel of the body, the projectile freefall is when the body is thrown away, and it includes horizontal movement as well as a upended movement and it will also have a small rotation (FarnellElectronics, 2011).When measuring the tilt, there is some things to take in consideration. The accelerometer needs to be mount in a way so the axis of rotation of sensitivity is parallel to the surface used. The formula used to calculate the output is the follow Vout = sensitivity of the accelerometer multiply by 1G times the tilt of the angle plus the offset voltage of the accelerometer. The output can vary from -1G to 1G, and detects angles from -90 to 90 degrees (FarnellElectronics, 2011).There is some considerations needed to be taken when measuring the position. First is the displacement, how far the accelerometer will be moving to detect the change in movement. The range of the device is really important. If its going to be tested on a person, is going to be produced a higher G force and requires an accelerometer that supports a higher G force range, If its going to be a very small change such as a mouse it requires an accelerometer with a really high sensitivity (CH Robotics, 2017).When measuring scandalize the biggest thing to consider is the G-range. The accelerometers uses the deceleration of the object to determine the shock, like tapping or a car crash. To measure the vibration, the closer the accelerometer is from the vibration source, the higher the G value (Morrow, 1974). For measure vibration the most important thig is the frequency of the vibration, the second thing to consider is the G range, similar to previous situations, for every application there will be a different type of accelerometer, and where the accelerometer is mounted will affect the readings as well.Below is represented on how the g force is spread through the axis2.2.2 Main typesBetween a DC- response accelerometer and an AC-response accelerometers, DC is the most recommended one as AC-response accelerometers cant measure static accelerations, slow vibrations or sustained accelerations collect to being AC coupled.The main types of accelerometers are the ones listed below.Capacitive DC coupled. Produces an output based on capacitance changes. They are smaller and cheaper than the average accelerometer (Mineta et al. 431-435). They are mostly found in phones, gaming platforms (Wii, Xbox, etc)Piezo repellent DC coupled. Produces an output based on the resistance changes, under strain gauges that are part of the accelerometers seismic mass. ordinarily used in shock events due to its high frequency range, amplitude and wide bandwidth (Partridge et al. 58-62). They are very accurate, as they can measure as low as 0 Hz, but they are not a good choice to test low frequency vibrations due to lack of sensitivity (Voldamn 2007).piezoelectric AC coupled. Produces an output based on an electric charge proportional to the force suffered under acceleration. Mostly used for test and measurement roles, due to its high frequency, sensitivity and simplicity (Tian et al. 2). However because they ar e not DC coupled, is a bad choice in situations with high displacement or velocity as it cant detect low vibrations, or high acceleration levels.Below is listed in a resumed way the characteristics of each accelerometer.ApplicationPiezoelectricCapacitivePiezo resistiveStatic accelerationG forceSeismicLow frequency vibrationGeneral vibrationHigh frequency vibrationGeneral shockHigh impact shockExtreme shockReferencesAddley, K and J Farren. Irish Rugby Injury Survey Dungannon Football Club (1986-87).. British ledger of Sports Medicine 22.1 (1988) 22-24. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.Afrotechmods,. How An Accelerometer Works. 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2017.Bleakley, C. (2015). Research on youth rugby injuries in Northern Ireland. theBMJ, p.3.Bull, A. (2013). Death of a schoolboy why concussion is rugby unions dirty secret. Theguardian, online pp.1-3. 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An Introduction To Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering. 1st ed. Boston, Mass. u.a. Artech House, 2004. Print.Meredith, R. (2016). Schoolboy rugby UU study finds high rate of severe injury. BBC News, onli ne p.1. Available at http//www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35636594 Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.Mineta, T et al. Three-Axis Capacitive Accelerometer With Uniform Axial Sensitivities. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 6.4 (1996) 431-435. Web.Morrow, C. (1974). Literature Review Application of Bk eQuipment To Mechanical Vibration and Shock Measurements J. T. Brock. The Shock and Vibration Digest, 6(12), pp.86-87.Nistic, A. (2013). functional principle of a capacitive accelerometer.Palmer-Green, Dr Debbie, Dr Grant Trewartha, and Dr Keith Stokes. Report On Injury Risk In English Youth Rugby Union. Sport, Health Exercise Science, University of Bath, 2009. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.Tian, Bian et al. Design Of A Piezoelectric Accelerometer With High Sensitivity And Low Transverse Effect. Sensors 16.10 (2016) 2. Web.Using Accelerometers to Estimate Position and Velocity CH Robotics. (2017). online Chrobotics.com. Available at http//www.chrobotics.com/library/accel-position-veloci ty Accessed 23 Feb. 2017.Voldamn, Joel. A Capacitive Accelerometer. 2007. Lecture.