| WO2013060999A1 | 2013-05-02 | |||
| WO2007043970A1 | 2007-04-19 |
| EP0551962A2 | 1993-07-21 | |||
| US7682287B1 | 2010-03-23 | |||
| US20110195819A1 | 2011-08-11 | |||
| US8360935B2 | 2013-01-29 |
| CLAIMS 1. Method carried out in a device or machine (50) for physical exercise, characterized by real-time storage in a memory (80) of a signal (x) containing information on the action of the user on the machine while he is performing an exercise. 2. Method according to claim 1 , in which storage is carried out through sampling. 3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, in which the machine has a resistance element that can be moved by a user with muscular force in a movement range, and a signal is stored in real time with information on the movement of the element during the movement range made by the user. 4. Method according to claim 3, in which the information includes the position of the element during the movement range and / or one or more time derivatives of the position pattern. 5. Method according to one of the previous claims, in which the machine behavior is controlled on the basis of the stored signal. 6. Method according to claim 3 or 4, in which the resistance posed by the resistance element is controlled on the basis of the stored signal. 7. Method according to one of the previous claims, in which the stored signal is compared with a benchmark curve, and the resistance and/ or the abovementioned behavior is controlled on the basis of the result obtained from the comparison. 8. Method according to claim 7, in which the resistance posed by the resistance element is determined by using a mathematical model applied to the stored signal and / or to the result of the abovementioned comparison. 9. Method according to one of the previous claims from 3 to 8, in which a resistance response for the element is generated automatically then the abovementioned signal is stored during the activity of the user on the element. 10. Device or machine (50) for physical exercise including a memory and a circuit or means of acquisition to acquire and store in real time in the memory a signal with information on the action of the user on the machine while he is performing an exercise. |
The invention refers to a machine or a device for physical exercise and to a relating control method.
Modern machines or devices for physical exercise are generally provided with a resistance element (dumbbell, barbell, plate to push, string to pull, etc.) that can be moved by a user with muscular force with a certain movement range.
The most recent machines are smart, so much so that the resistance response of the element may follow a programmed reference signal by means of a drive. For example, see paragraphs 26, 70, 95-96, 139 of US 2001/0195819. Also US 8 360 935 proposes the same idea.
An engine in a feedback loop is used to control the resistance element. A variable x is acquired, provided by a sensor on the resistance element and an engine is driven so that the error between x and a reference signal is small, in other words that x follows the desired pattern. The reference can be a programmable function of time t and/or of x. For example, see the graphs in figures 3 and 5 of US 2011 /0195819.
The drawback of these machines is that they respond to the behavior of the user only in real time during his exercise.
A reference of resistance can be set, but the mistaken assumption is that the athlete is always able to follow it. In sports or therapeutic rehabilitation, or for example in professional training, a thorough customization of the machine is indispensable. For that purpose, the athlete needs to know how to program the machine and then proceeds by trial and error. Not only time is wasted, in addition the adaptability person-machine is inadequate and/or non-repeatable. Finally, the machine does not take into consideration at all the different muscular features of each individual, who then has to configure it for his specific needs, if he manages to do so. However, the perfect stimulation of muscle fiber requires a precise response of the machine throughout all the movement range, which is impossible to be obtained by programming and requires that the user already knows his muscular response. It is undeniable, on the other hand, that high-level training, customized or even more so in rehabilitation, requires that the machine is programmed in every detail of its response according to the athlete's features.
The main purpose of the invention is to solve at least one of these problems. The invention is defined in the enclosed claims, where the dependent ones define advantageous variants.
A method is proposed that is carried out in a device or machine for physical exercise and consists of storing a signal in a memory in real time. The signal contains information on the action of the user on the machine while he is performing an exercise.
The advantage is therefore to eventually have a track or pattern of the exercise and/ or of some of its parameters at disposal, for example for a trial exercise. The track or pattern permits for example the real-time verification of the athlete's physical and muscle condition and /or his progress or regression (e.g. fatigue) over time (during an exercise session or during one single exercise) and/ or to automatically set the work or load parameters of the machine as a function of the abovementioned acquired signal.
This signal can be the user action or interaction with a generic portion of the machine (different for example from a movable resistance element), such as a platform, a seat or seatback or a generic sensor, such as a heart rate monitor or a thermometer.
If the machine has a resistance element that can be moved by user with muscular force with a certain movement range, the abovementioned signal may (also) contain information on the movement of the element during the movement range carried out by the user.
The variable sampled or acquired with the signal can be the/ a linear or angular position of the resistance element.
It is then possible to measure the athlete's performance on the resistance element and to modify the machine operation accordingly, allowing countless therapeutic or training possible applications.
For example, the abovementioned information may include the position of the element during the movement range and / or one or more time derivatives of the position pattern. The advantages are an easy choice of the signal, providing excellent and complete indications on the athlete's behavior.
Moreover, having and/ or calculating the abovementioned derivatives permits a better dynamic programming of the resistance element.
Advantageously, in the method, the resistance posed by the resistance element, or the behavior of the machine in general, can be controlled, according to the stored signal, with the advantage that the machine can be programmed in order to adapt it, even in real time, to the personal characteristics of the athlete, even to momentary features such as tiredness or the difficulty in making a specific movement or reaching a certain position during one single exercise, etc.
Preferably, the stored signal is compared with a benchmark curve, and the resistance and/or the abovementioned behavior is controlled as a function of the result obtained by the comparison. For example, it is possible to calculate the difference between the reference curve and the stored signal. This operation is advantageously simple if digital samples are used. The resistance and / or the abovementioned behavior is programmed on the basis of this difference.
The advantage is the possibility to program the machine in order to adapt it to the personal characteristics of the athlete, in particular as regards the deficiencies from a preset program.
It is possible to define the resistance opposed by the resistance element by using a mathematical algorithm applied to the stored signal and/ or to the result of the abovementioned comparison, thus obtaining many operating variants.
It is possible to control the resistance posed by the resistance element in order to repeat a pattern which produced the stored signal or one of its repetitions, e.g. scaled through programmable coefficients.
It is therefore possible to program the machine in order to repeat (the condition of) the sessions or the previous exercises.
It is also possible to automatically generate a resistance response for the element and then to store the signal during the user activity on the element. The advantage is the possibility to program the machine for example to assess the condition of an athlete or the functioning of a limb. A device or machine for physical exercise suitable to implement the method is also proposed.
It includes a memory, and a circuit or an acquisition tool to acquire and store a signal in real time containing information on the action of the user on the machine while he is performing an exercise.
As independent modules, the machine may comprise:
a sampler to acquire the signal as an acquisition tool;
a resistance element that can be moved by a user with muscular force in a certain movement range, and the acquisition tool stores a signal in real time containing information on the movement of the element during the movement range made by the user;
an acquisition tool acquiring the position of the element during the movement range and / or one or more time derivatives of the position pattern; an electronic controller (such as a PLC or a microprocessor, preferably programmable) for controlling the behavior of the machine on the basis of the stored signal, in particular for controlling the resistance posed by the resistance element as a function of the stored signal;
an electronic controller comparing, for example by calculating the difference, the signal stored with a reference curve and the resistance and/or the abovementioned behavior, and then for controlling the machine according to the result obtained by the comparison. In particular, the electronic controller is for defining the resistance posed by the resistance element by using a mathematical model applied to the stored signal and/or to the result of the abovementioned comparison;
an electronic controller to automatically generate a resistance response for the element and then to store the signal during the user's activity on the element.
An optional module is also proposed, it can be applied on a machine for physical exercise, it includes an input line for acquiring a signal in a memory in real time containing information on the user's action on the machine while he is performing an exercise. It is also possible to provide that the accessory module carries out every variant of the method and/or contains the elements of the abovementioned machine, with the same advantages.
The advantages of the invention will be clearer after the following description of a preferred embodiment of the machine, with reference to the enclosed drawing.
Fig. 1 shows a graph of a signal present on a preferred machine;
Fig. 2 shows an axonometric view of a preferred machine;
Fig. 3 shows an axonometric view of a variant of a preferred machine; In the figures, the same numbers refer to the same parts or to parts that are conceptually similar.
Figure 2 shows an example of machine 50 with a Mot electrical engine controlled by a drive 60 and driving a movable resistance element, e.g. a grip 58 attached to a string 56 which can be pulled by the user with their muscular force. String 56, for example, is sent back in a known way on pulleys 54 and pulled in a known way from a motor pulley 55 coupled to the Mot engine. The Mot engine can also for example control a dumbbell, a barbell, a platform, etc.
The purpose of the machine 50 is to control the Mot engine to drive the element 58 so that it provides the desired resistance R* (see also fig.1 ) , so that the user experiences the desired resistance while working. To this end, it is also possible to use the abovementioned feedback loop negatively, it includes for example the drive 60 and/or the Mot engine.
The drive 60 is driven by an electronic controller 70, it has a processing unit 72 (such as a microprocessor or a PLC) for calculating and generating a paired reference signal R* on an output line 90. The controller 70 receives a feedback signal along a line 62 directly from the drive.
The processing unit 72 can be implemented with hardware and / or be part of a computer program. The described actions for the unit 70 or 72 can be considered as performed after and / or through a suitable programming.
The machine 50 may comprise a force sensor arranged to measure the force applied by user on element 58, e.g. an acceleration sensor or a load cell, or a position sensor generating a signal according to the position of element 58 along its movement path, that is the movement range.
It is however advisable to use a Mot engine with encoder, so that drive 60 provides a kinematic indirect value (fig. 1) for the position x (linear or angular) of element 58 (signal on line 62). In particular x can conventionally take values x m in <= x <= Xmax, with x m in as the beginning of the movement range and x ma x, as the end of the movement range.
The unit 70 includes a sampler 78, thanks to which it can sample the signal x (known converters A/D and D/A for the digitization/ analog reconstruction of signals are not shown for the sake of simplicity). Or converters A/D are not used because the position obtained from the bits of the phases generated by an encoder inside the Mot engine is sufficient.
The samples, for example different values of interest obtained from position x, from the given reference and from the time, can be stored in a memory 80 and (re)read when necessary.
The unit 70 or 72 can be programmed in order to allow the user for example to import customized samples from outside into the memory 80 and/ or to save them so that they can be retrieved in later sessions with no need to re-program the machine 50 every time. The unit 70 or 72 can also make the abovementioned data of the memory 80 available externally or receive them, for example via USB or serial port or network card 82, to permit the exportation of customization to other machines or the importation of the samples. Unit 70 or 72 can also send a number of samples acquired during the execution of the exercise, in real time, for example via wireless with a stage transceiver 84, to another remote device Z such as a remote control or a control unit.
The samples through unit 70 or 72 can be displayed as a graph or as numbers on a display 66 (e.g. a touch screen) and/or manipulated/ modified/programmed by entering data and values with the help of a keyboard 68 on the machine 50 or if necessary on the abovementioned remote device Z to which data were sent.
With the sampler 78 it is possible to sample the signal x to store the pattern for one or two directions of the movement range, e.g. lifting or lowering a barbell or round trip of an organ along an arch (see fig. 3, x represents an angle in this case, called a). In this case it is sufficient to separately store the punctual value of x or a at time instants relating to the trajectory of the resistance element from x m in to x ma x (outward movement) and from Xmax to Xmin (return movement).
The samples or the signal x or a can be calculated mathematically through the unit 70 or 72 in order to
- use different scales or unit of measure and/ or
- to consider possible cams combined or associated with the resistance element, which can distort the values of force and position. This allows for example to adapt the invention system to a preexisting mechanics.
Through unit 70 or 72, for example, the machine weight and possibly the weight of the limb performing the exercise can be expected to be compensated.
It should be noted that the machine 50 can advantageously control the Mot engine for the two directions of the movement range independently, therefore the exercises can have different and programmable responses in the two trajectories or movements of the resistance element.
Unit 72 can perform supplementary operations such as derivatives calculation dx i /dt 1 and/ or dkx/dt i (i>0), and/ or a control of maximum or minimum or threshold value for x and /or a and these derivatives, as well as their storage in the memory 80.
Sometimes the drive 60 provides x and the derivatives already calculated (and then sampled as well), with analog signal and/ or in digital format. Otherwise the signal x, for example acquired by sensors, can also or only include the derivatives d^x/di 1 and/ or dkx / dtK
An athlete can react in many ways to the resistance R*. For example, fig.1 shows (upper graph) that during a simulation of weight to lift the athlete fails to push the resistance element at a constant speed, see curve xw, within the two extremes [x a , xt > ] of the movement range corresponding to a time interval [t a , t D ] of the exercise.
The variation Xdeita between the ideal curve x re f and the actual curve xw should be noted.
The lower graph shows the constant resistance R* imposed by the machine 50. The curve xw is sampled and analyzed by unit 70, 72. In particular it is possible to program a new response Rnew as a function of xw and / or Xdeita, and for example to plan an interval D with less resistance for the resistance Rnew in the interval [x a - xt > ], to compensate the muscle weakness in that interval and assist the athlete.
To have the curve xw and/or the values Xdeita (and/or the time derivatives) available in the machine 50 permits to program the dynamic response of the resistance element adapting it, sample by sample, to the personal curve xw of the athlete.
Every curve R ne w or the parameters for its automatic production can be programmed by the user through the unit 70 , 72 , for example by entering data and values with the help of the keyboard 68 and/or the display 66 (e.g. a touch screen) or by loading a program from a library or an external unit.
The samples can be displayed for example in a graph with single variable or multiple variables, according to operator choice, on the display 66. It is possible to program these parameters from the menu on the display 66.
The stored samples can be compared with the ideal benchmark curve Xref or a preset curve (and available for example in the memory 80) in a customized way, for example for calculating a variation Xdeita. Controlling or generating the resistance R* on the basis of the result obtained from the comparison, for example through programs running in the unit 72 , the machine 50 can act as a personal trainer. For calculating the variation Xdeita it is possible to use for example the algebraic difference between the digitized numerical values of xref and xw, or a mathematical or metric rule, or mathematical function or algorithm.
It is sufficient to program the criteria for generating the curve R ne w, for example with therapeutic parameters, to make the machine 50 autonomous in managing a rehabilitation or training program, with no need to have a supervisor or an expert.
In particular it is possible to calculate the resistance R posed by the resistance element by using a mathematical model applied to the signal or on stored samples of xw and/ or Xdeita, considering for example age, gender and physical condition of the athlete (data entered in unit 72 from the keyboard 68) . It is possible to control the resistance R* to repeat a pattern of x or a which produced the previously-stored signal or its scaled repetition through programmable coefficients.
Or it is possible to set a training method so that the unit 72 automatically, casually for example, generates a resistance response R* and then the signal xw is stored during user's activity on the element. Depending on the actual response xw of the user, unit 72 can decide whether to keep the previous curve R* or to modify it in a programmed or casual way.
Fig. 3 shows an example of machine in which the Mot engine drives a resistance element 98 in both directions of the movement range. The element 98 is a swinging arm with two sleeves, between which an arm or a leg should be introduced. The limb feels the resistance controlled by the Mot engine both in extension and in bending.
It is also possible to program a unit 70, preferably also associating or integrating it with elements 66, 68, to create an independent module to be applied to a preexisting system or machine, so that a known machine can be improved with the new exercise methodologies that can be obtained with the strategy described. The module only requires the connection of the input line 62 and the output line 90.
In general acquisitions of x can be used as initial data on repetitive actions of the user. Through the exam and processing of the acquisitions, it is possible to define an optimal setup of the machine to perform a specific training exercise.
The digital processing can be performed thanks to known programming techniques.
Even if the examples concern signal and calculation in the digital domain, it is possible to put into practice the invention also with analog signal.