Laser tracking system for sports ball trajectory measurement

Abstract

Citation: RONKAINEN, J. and HARLAND, A.R., 2010 DOI: 10.1243/17543371JSET67Abstract: The sports ball market is a multi-million dollar industry; original equipment manufacturers are continually trying to develop sports balls and in order to achieve improvement in performance they often utilize launch and/or flight monitors to allow consistent measurement and benchmarking of their balls under test. This paper introduces a laser tracking system (LTS), which has been specifically designed for soccer ball tracking. This LTS combines two different concepts together in an innovative optical solution to allow the system to track an arbitrarily moving soccer ball in a completely non-contact and non-marking methodology, tracking a ball in real time up to approximately 10 m/s. The system was programmed to act as a launch monitor capable of reporting the ball launch velocity and launch angle. In order to achieve the fully functional LTS, the hardware and software choices are clearly outlined, as well as describing the tracking methodology used to achieve the real-time tracking capability.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Soccer: Web of Science Bibliometric Analysis

“…However, in addition to the players, the ball is one of the characteristics of football compared to other sports. In this context, several authors have analysed the trajectory and behaviour of the ball through innovative techniques and state-of-the-art cameras [111][112][113][114]. The valuable information provided by the above authors improves the knowledge of football, but can also be used from an entrepreneurial lens in the sports ball market.…”

Investigation and comparison of performance of some air gun projectiles with nose shape modifications

“…Silton and Weinacht 1 investigated the effect of rifling grooves on the performance of some axisymmetric projectiles. Ronkainen and Harland 2 used a laser tracking system to measure a soccer ball trajectory. They claimed that their technique could be applied to any sports ball or a spherical object.…”