RE: [Paddlewise] RE: Electronic paddle - was bracing and power

From: PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:20:10 +1000
Peter wrote: -
How about doppler ultrasound for the velocity? Of course its widely used but
would it be accurate enough?
Some web references below relevant to the technology and my comments about
combining gyros and accelerometers. Reference 3 describes the potential use
of multiple (4) IMU magnetometers to measure velocity and position. Might be
worth asking if Talon are considering a similar approach.
http://invensense.com/kr/mems/gyro/documents/articles/motion_sensing_accel_h
uman.pdf 
http://cvlab.epfl.ch/publications/publications/2006/DejnabadiJCFA06.pdf
http://cas.ensmp.fr/~petit/papers/cdc07/DV.pdf


G'Day,

Matt, I should have asked earlier what accuracy and time resolution are you
seeking and over what distance. MEMS (microelectromechanical) accelerometers
are improving rapidly; it might now be feasible to get one with a good
enough S/N and low enough drift that attaching it to the kayak and carrying
out an integration and calibration gives you its velocity over reasonable
distances. It might also be possible to carry out a timed reset and
recalibration at intervals. Possibly cheaper than buying a doppler
ultrasound although if you could find a discarded fishing sonar its probably
not too hard to extract the piezo element and rig up a doppler and frequency
counter. They run at about 200kHz so the resolution limit is going to be two
or three cm per sec velocity error. You might also be able to derive an
average velocity from the paddle accelerometers although the paddle movement
means it wouldn't average fast enough for multiple values during a paddle
stroke. The sales rep at Talon told me they don't derive linear velocity
from the accelerometers but seemed interested in the possibility.

BTW I've mentioned Paddlewise to the engineers at Talon, hopefully they may
log on.

All the best, PeterO
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Received on Tue Jul 27 2010 - 01:20:19 PDT

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