Stephen Strasburg pitching in his major league debut (dbking/Flickr)

Of the 161 injured players in Major League Baseball, 94 are pitchers.  It’s no surprise: Pitchers can work up unbelievable speeds when they throw, like Stephen Strasburg, who threw 101 mph with his fastball and pitched 14 strikeouts in his debut with the Washington Nationals.

However, when pitchers begin throwing inconsistently, due to fatigue or poor technique, they are susceptible to physical harm and can tear a ligament or hurt their shoulder.

Such injuries can ruin a pitcher’s career, such as Hall of Famer Don Drysdale, whose pitching career was cut short by a bad rotator cuff injury.  These can also cost MLB teams as much as $54 million per year in salary losses.

That is why three engineering students at Northeastern University created a “data-logging” compression shirt that can track pitching mechanics during a game in real time.

Data-logging baseball shirt (Ecouterre)

The students embedded motion sensors on the forearm, back, and bicep areas of the shirt and powered the sensors with conductive threads that are also embedded in the fabric.

The sensors are linked to a software program that records acceleration and movement of the pitching arm, data that can be made accessible for coaches to monitor in the dugout.

Before the design of this smart compression shirt, pitchers had to perform in a lab for their movements to be analyzed.  Now coaches can know immediately when a pitcher is in danger of injury.

Three MLB teams have already shown interest and contacted the students, who are in the process of developing a completely wireless prototype.

Filed under: e-News, Mechanical | Comments Off on Smart Shirts to Protect a Pitcher’s
Invaluable Arm

Brazilian midfielder Kaka heads the Jabulani ball (Shine 2010/Flickr)

While the whole world was anticipating the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa, a team of scientists and engineers were busy crafting one of its most crucial pieces of equipment: the soccer ball. This year’s ball, made by Adidas, is named Jabulani, which means “celebrate” in the Zulu language.

Jabulani boasts many technical improvements, such as a specially engineered surface texture for better grip, shock-absorbing polymer material, and a more aerodynamic shape. Instead of stitching, the ball’s sections are fused together chemically, giving Jabulani a rounder shape and allowing it to soar through to air with less drag. For more details about the physics behind soccer ball design and Jabulani, check out this great article from Physics World.

Here’s a video from Adidas describing the rigorous testing process of Jabulani (bonus: it involves robots!):

Some players’ reactions to the new soccer ball have been less than celebratory, however. They claim that Jabulani flies more erratically than a regular ball, dodging and bending in the air. This unpredictable flight path is particularly bothersome to goalkeepers trying to track its trajectory.

Responding to such complaints, Adidas shot back with the assertion that the disgruntled players were those who had sponsorship contracts with competing athletics companies. While the final impact of Jabulani remains to be seen, you can watch it in action and root for your favorite teams in the meantime.

Filed under: e-News, Industrial / Manufacturing, Mechanical | 2 Comments »

Local rivals Ajax Cape Town and Engen Santos play at Cape Town Stadium in January (Warren Rohner/Flickr)

South Africa is privileged to be the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup.  Hosting the world’s most-watched sporting event comes with a lot of responsibility, however; and South Africa had to undertake some serious building projects to properly accommodate the event.

Six new stadiums were built in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup.  Each was designed with impressive sustainable building strategies.

Take, for example, the Cape Town stadium, which was built in that city’s Green Point neighborhood.  Residents were concerned about potential crowd noise the stadium would create.  So, German engineers created a glass ring around the roof’s central hole.

The ring, which is the world’s largest glass ceiling, keeps the neighborhood quiet by reflecting the crowd’s cheering back into the stand and field.  It consists of 9,000 half-inch-think glass panels, which weigh 4,700 tons, and is supported by 72 radial steel cables arranged symmetrically around the arena to steady the structure against high winds.

The roof’s concave shape helps the Cape Town Stadium deflect wind (Le Scribbler/Flickr)

Other stadiums built in nine cities throughout South Africa include sustainable features such as natural ventilation and daylighting, which uses windows and reflective surfaces to keep indoor areas lit with natural light.  One stadium incorporates an energy-efficient heating and cooling system and is capable of collecting rainwater for conservation.

Despite these efforts in green design, the carbon footprint of this year’s World Cup will be six times greater than the last World Cup hosted by Germany in 2006.

One reason is that South Africa had to build so many new stadiums, whereas Germany had plenty of existing venues for the competition.  Large building projects require a substantial amount of cement, and each ton produced releases one ton of carbon. Another factor is long-distance international travel, since many fans will be flying in from Europe.

The carbon footprint of the 2010 World Cup (GDS Digital/Flickr)

In total, the 2010 World Cup will expel close to three million tons of carbon dioxide, which equals the yearly emissions of over one million cars.

Such figures may not be foremost in the minds of most fans – who, for the most part, will be concentrating on scores and stats. Yet, concern for the environment is gaining importance in the planning and execution of such international events.

Filed under: Architectural, Civil, e-News, Environmental | Comments Off on Should the 2010 World Cup Get a Yellow Card for Pollution?

Two robots face off at last year’s RoboCup in Austria

While soccer fans around the world are energized about the start of the World Cup, engineers are preparing for the RoboCup world championship, which begins June 19 and takes place in Singapore.

Carnegie Mellon University students, who have been strong competitors in the RoboCup soccer tournament in years past, are especially confident in their robot soccer players this year, thanks to a new algorithm based on physics principles.

The algorithm helps the robots predict the behavior of the ball and will allow the robots to out-maneuver their opponents, invent some new kicks, and find creative solutions to game situations that could even surprise their programmers.

Other teams rely on pre-programmed behaviors that focus on avoiding obstacles and reacting to the moves of their opponents.  Carnegie Mellon’s physics-based planning allows their robots to have an awareness of the dynamics of the ball, which enables moves such as tight turns when dribbling the ball.

The challenge faced by all researchers working with artificial intelligence, however, is to get the robots to coordinate with each other. So these soccer games are more than just fun—they’re also helping to advance the study and use of robots.

But there’s still a lot of excitement: Over 500 teams will be compete in RoboCup 2010,  the world’s largest robotics and artificial intelligence event, which involves five different robot soccer leagues, as well as competitions for search-and-rescue robots.

Filed under: e-News, Mechanical | 3 Comments »

Looks like it’s time to showcase another amazingly cool DIY project: a printer made from Legos, electronic sensors, USB wiring, and a felt-tip pen. Created by a gadget-loving Youtuber (username: horseattack), this incredible device is a treat to watch:

[Wired]

Filed under: Computer, e-News, Electrical | 7 Comments »