Cork researchers hit target with technology

VELOCITIP BALLISTIC SYSTEM:NEW TECHNOLOGY that measures the characteristics of an arrow in flight is hitting the bullseye, and it was developed in conjunction with a team of researchers in Ireland.

“It’s a device for recording inflight parameters of an arrow,” says John Barton from the Clarity Centre for Sensor Web Technologies at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork. The project came about when US company Full Flight Technology contacted the Cork group after seeing some of their published academic work, says Barton.

“They had read some of our research into the area of inertia measurement, and they wanted to work with us, see if [the idea] was feasible,” he says. “It was a case of a company coming to us that had an applied problem. They had a very clear focus and goal on a very specific problem they wanted to solve.”

So the team put microelectronics into a standard removable arrow tip in order to record complex information about the arrow’s flight path.

“We were confined to working within certain weights and dimensions, and we had to fit all our electronics within this small arrow tip,” says Barton.

He describes how they developed the system to measure parameters such as time of flight, velocity, drag coefficient and launch and impact values. “You are taking measurements in all three axes, x, y, and z.”

To access the data, the user unscrews the tip from the arrow and loads it into a docking station, explains Barton: “You disconnect the arrow tip when you have taken up to four shots, you pop it into the docking station, switch it on and it is simple to use.”

One of the challenges was to ensure the components themselves wouldn’t disturb the flight. “We had to place the electronic components on either side so the weight would be distributed,” he says.

The product, called the Velocitip Ballistic System, was launched by Full Flight Technology in the United States earlier this year and the Boston-based company is now in talks with the US Olympic archery team, says Barton.

More generally, the technology behind the system has more widespread application for sensors in sport and performance, he adds. “The tracking of motion, whether it’s athletes or their equipment, and being able to feed back data to the coach and the player is key.”