Ski training apparatus

• US 5,690,591 A
• Filed: 09/12/1995
• Issued: 11/25/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Fukuzumi, Shin'ichi, Kenmochi, Akihisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Crow, Stephen R.
• Application Number:
  US08/527,203
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: 482/51, 482/70, 482/71, 482/148, 482/900, 482/901, 482/902, 482/1, 482/4-9, 434/253
• US Class Current: 482/71
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/18 for skiing

Abstract

A ski training apparatus includes footboards a movable portion, an apparatus body, a braking section, a movement estimating section, a braking control section, and a braking section. The movable portion supports the footboards to allow them to rotate, and displaces the footboards in accordance with ski-sliding movement. The apparatus body supports the movable portion to allow it to swing. The measuring section measures the loads of the feet of a trainee on the footboards to output load information, while measuring the displacement amount of the movable portion and the rotational angles of the footboards to output displacement information. The movement estimating section estimates a sliding velocity, the position of the trainee on a slope, and an edging strength representing the magnitude of a reactive force received from a snowy surface and corresponding to the load of the trainee on the snowy surface on the basis of the load information, the displacement information, and geographical information, and outputs movement information. The braking control section calculates a braking amount from the pieces of above information to output braking information. The braking section applies a braking force to the movable portion in accordance with the braking information.

Claims

1. A ski training apparatus comprising:

a pair of left and right footboards on which a trainee stands instead of skis;

a movable portion which supports said footboards to allow said footboards to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise, and swings to displace said footboards along an arcuated locus in accordance with ski-sliding movement of the trainee;

an apparatus body which supports said movable portion to allow said movable portion to swing in a horizontal direction;

measuring means for measuring loads of the left and right feet of the trainee standing on said footboards, and outputting the measured loads as load information, while measuring a displacement amount of said movable portion and rotational angles of said footboards, and outputting the measured amount and angles as displacement information;

movement estimating means for estimating a sliding velocity, a position of the trainee on a slope, and an edging strength representing a magnitude of a reactive force received from a snowy surface and corresponding to a load of the trainee on the snowy surface on the basis of the load information and the displacement information, which are supplied from said measuring means, and geographical information input in advance and indicating a state of the inclined surface on which the trainee slides, and outputting the estimated sliding velocity, position, and edging strength as movement information; and

braking control means for calculating a braking amount by using the load information and the displacement information which are supplied from said measuring means and the movement information which is supplied from said movement estimating means, and outputting the braking amount as braking information; and

braking means for applying a braking force to said movable portion in accordance with the braking information from said braking control means.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the geographical information used by said movement estimating means includes an inclination of the inclined surface on which the trainee slides, a coefficient of kinetic friction of the snowy surface, and a snow removing resistance.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said movement estimating means comprises sliding state estimating means for calculating a sliding velocity and the position of the trainee on the slope on the basis of the load information from said measuring means and geographical information indicating a state of an inclined surface on which the trainee slides, edging strength calculating means for calculating an edging strength representing a magnitude of a reactive force received from the snowy surface and corresponding to a load applied to the snowy surface on the basis of the load information and the displacement information which are supplied from said measuring means, the sliding velocity, and the geographical information indicating the state of the inclined surface on which the trainee slides, and movement information generating means for generating movement information including the sliding velocity and the position of the trainee on the slope, which are supplied from, said sliding state estimating means, and the edging strength from said edging strength calculating means.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said sliding state estimating means obtains a velocity and a distance at an arbitrary time from a predetermined mathematic expression by using a total load of the trainee including skis as load information from said measuring means, an inclination of the inclined surface as geographical information, a kinetic friction between each sliding surface and the snowy surface, a snow removing resistance, an air resistance as a constant, and a gravitational acceleration as a constant, thereby estimating a sliding velocity and the position of the trainee on the slope.

5. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said edging strength calculating means calculates an edging strength from a predetermined mathematic expression by using a total load of the trainee including the skis and loads of the left and right feet, the total load and the loads of the left and right feet being based on the load information from said measuring means, a direction of each ski which is based on the displacement information from said measuring means, an inclination of each ski as the displacement information from said measuring means, a direction of velocity which is based on the sliding velocity from said sliding state estimating means, and weighting constants for the left and right skis.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the edging strength calculated by said edging strength calculating means increases as an angular difference between the direction of each ski and a direction of velocity becomes closer to a right angle, and a force applied outward from a turn increases.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said braking means is constituted by an electromagnetic brake for electromagnetically braking displacing movement of said movable portion.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a spring member for providing said movable portion with a force for restoration to a middle position.