Cricket Australia to use wearable with Missile Technology to improve bowling

Use of wearable in sports is not new however Cricket Australia went ahead of their competitors by using a sophisticated missile technology –TORPEDO– to aid its pacers.

Australia’s fast bowlers will be supported by technology more commonly used in military situations. The Torpedo is built into a wearable unit that contains in an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer motion sensors which can detect the delivery of the ball.

WHAT GOOD TORPEDO WILL DO TO PACER?

Sports scientists at University’s School of Exercise Science in ACU developed the algorithm for manual reporting of professional cricketers’ capacities which not only measures how many deliveries have been bowled, but also the intensity of the effort. Researchers from ACU (Australian Catholic University) have been able to develop an innovative algorithm. This will reduce injuries and improve performance of the country’s pacers.

In words of Dr. Tim Gabbett “These smart algorithms rely on the interaction of the accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes housed within the wearable unit – the same technology used to navigate submarines, guided missiles and spacecraft.”

This algorithm senses a delivery, and measure bowling strength. It is done with the help of accelerometer and gyroscope technology. ACU sports scientist Dean McNamara told, “Tagging individual balls with an intensity measure provide both immediate analysis such as identifying the effort of balls, or potentially a drop in performance due to fatigue, or longer term workload analysis”.  He further explained how the missile-guiding accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes provide a stable measure of bowling ‘load’ across repeated bowling spells. An over is a measure of workload with six consecutive deliveries by a bowler, with each delivery carrying the ball from bowler to the batsman 20 meters away at speeds varying from 80 to 160 km/h. Among the three forms of cricket (Tests, ODIs and T20s), a bowler’s job may vary from four to sixty overs. Because of this varying load, cricket provides a difficult task for physicians and mentors. Presently, no other professional sport has experienced excessive variations than cricket over the last decade.

The ACU sports scientists said that the high-tech, algorithm-enhances wearable, “something substantially more than the standard GPS units used by elite athletes” could be used in professional baseball, rugby union, rugby, tennis, football and many other sports. Cricket’s need for a better measure of athlete workload was necessary due to an explosion in popularity of new forms of the game.

Cricket Australian is not the only sporting team to take advantage from the groundbreaking technology. It’s also being used by the Wales rugby union team before of their three Test series in June.