Bilaterally actuated sculling trainer
View Patent ↗An apparatus for simulating sculling or rowing on water includes a support frame with foot rests, a sliding seat, bilateral oars that are rotationally coupled to a set of actuators, integrated input velocity and torque sensors, computer and computer display. Each actuator incorporates a mechanical transmission, a rotational inertial mass, a variable linear and a variable non-linear damping element. The damping elements can be controlled manually or automatically by computer programs under user control.
1. A method for simulating movement along water comprising:
receiving angular velocity and torque data from at least one simulated oar in a rotation about a rotational axis;
determining a damping load for a drive assembly, in communication with the at least one simulated oar, from the received angular velocity and torque data, the damping load including non-linear and linear damping components; and
relating through a transmission the received torque data to the received angular velocity data by the following equation:
T i =( J i +N 2 ·J o )· w iaa +(( b i +N 2 ·( b o +b 1 ))· w i +b nl ·N 3 ·w i 2
wherein T i =input drive torque, J i =input rotational inertia, J o =output rotational inertia, N=transmission multiplying factor or gear factor, W i =input angular velocity, W iaa =input angular acceleration, b i =input drag coefficient, b o =output drag coefficient, b l =output linear damping coefficient, and b nl =output non-linear damping coefficient.
2. The method of claim 1 , additionally comprising: subjecting the drive assembly to the determined damping load.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data is in the form of electrical signals.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-linear damping component includes a square law function.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the linear damping component includes a linear function.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the linear damping component is provided by a variable linear damper.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the variable linear damper includes a magnetic damper.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-linear damping component is provided by a variable non-linear damper.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the variable non-linear damper is selected from the group consisting of air, fluid and viscous dampers.