Development of a real time, industrially hardened, ski performance analysis system

At Penn State Altoona, as a senior design project in the Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology department, we have developed an instrumentation system to measure the dynamic response of skis under real time skiing conditions. The intent is to monitor the ski response during different styles of high performance use. Consequently, initial modeling and static testing were required to determine both sensor type and placement to capture the critical parameters during a specific ski maneuver. Apart from the determination of sensor type and optimum placement, environmentally hardening (handling of large temperature variations and large and rapid loading) of the system proved challenging. The specific measurements performed were ski displacement and acceleration. In this work, we will discuss the design and construction processes, the testing processes, and the specific results of the static and dynamic testing. This information and testing system, which is coordinated with ski manufacturers, will then be available for the future redesigning of skis for specific performance constraints such as freestyle or slalom.