Design of A Paddle Monitoring System to Track Dragon Boat Performance

Abstract

Dragon boat racing is one of the fastest growing sports in the world today. On a typical race team, there are twenty paddlers working together to move the vehicle through a pre-determined course. While it is easy to determine which team is the fastest during a given race; the individual contribution of each paddler on the team is a harder to ascertain. In order to track the contribution of each paddler, a system must be designed to measure specific metrics for each team member, and collect them in a central data unit. The aim of this project is to create a paddle system to generate the stroke profile for each paddler, and measure the applied pressure and track the movement of the paddle as the paddler moves through the profile. This data can then be analyzed later in collaboration with other paddle systems to determine the contribution of each paddler on the vehicle motion.

* Indicates faculty mentor