A virtual swimmer may give Australian athletes the edge in the 2012 Olympic Games.
CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) are creating computer models of swimmers that can swim through virtual water.
The goal is to help individual swimmers find their ideal stroke techinique.
Researchers are hoping to see practical results in time to implement improvements for the Olympic Games in London in 2012.
How the model works
Traditional systems for modelling movement in water divide the water into a three-dimensional (3D) grid and model water movement at each point.
This approach has several drawbacks:
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it can’t model how the surface behaves, so arms and legs going in and out of the water can’t be modelled accurately
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it can’t take into account the effects of bubbles in the water
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it doesn't include turbulence, where the water forms tiny vortices instead of flowing smoothly.
The new model overcomes these problems with a technique called Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), which is similar to techniques CSIRO is using to animate water for movies.
In contrast to traditional methods, SPH describes fluid flow as the motion of individual particles.
Researchers will be able to use this technique to more accurately simulate the interactions of water with a swimmer, which is particularly complex at the water’s surface.
The new model will also include the shape of each individual swimmer, modelling the surface of their skin and how it moves when they swim.
Creating a model
There are several steps to create a virtual swimmer:
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motion capture equipment records how the swimmer moves when they swim
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the swimmer is scanned with a laser body scanner
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the two sets of information are combined to create a computer model that simulates the skin surface for all the poses the swimmer adopts while swimming.
Currently, the biggest challenge is modelling how the skin surface changes as the person moves.
Once the virtual model is created, its performance will be compared to the real person, to make sure it matches reality.
“By making slight changes to the swimming stroke and by re-running our simulations, researchers will be able to find out whether the swimmer goes faster or not.”
Dr Paul Cleary
CSIRO mathematician
Improving performance
The virtual swimmer will be used to experiment with different stroke techniques.
'By making slight changes to the swimming stroke and by re-running our simulations, researchers will be able to find out whether the swimmer goes faster or not,' says CSIRO mathematician Dr Paul Cleary.
'We’ll also be able to compare swimming styles between different swimmers to gain scientific insight into how each swimmer is moving through the water and even look into the effects of superimposing the techniques from different swimmers onto one another.'
About the scientists
The virtual swimmer is being developed by:
- Dr Paul Cleary of CSIRO Mathematics and Information Science (CMIS), who is providing software advice
- Dr Bruce Mason of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), who provides practical knowledge of swimming and well as much of the raw data for the project .
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