Abstract
Forward dynamics golf swing simulations are important to gain insight into how a golfer should swing a particular club and which design improvements should be considered by golf club manufacturers. A new method of optimizing a four degree-of-freedom (DoF) biomechanical golfer model swinging a flexible shaft with a rigid clubhead was developed using a direct orthogonal collocation approach. The kinematic and kinetic results of the simulation confirm previous findings on optimal joint angle trajectories, shaft deflection patterns, and joint torque profiles in a golf swing. This optimization approach is a promising development in biomechanics research, and future work will implement this method in three-dimensional swing models that have been shown to have higher robustness and fidelity.
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The authors acknowledge financial support from McPhee’s Tier I Canada Research Chair in Biomechatronic System Dynamics.
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Brown, C., McNally, W. & McPhee, J. Optimal control of joint torques using direct collocation to maximize ball carry distance in a golf swing. Multibody Syst Dyn 50, 323–333 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11044-020-09734-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11044-020-09734-0