Operation of a portable force platform on uneven/unlevel terrain

[Sarah Clarke]

I am looking for advice from anyone who has set up or operated a portable force platform in an environment outside of a lab. I am aware that a stable and level base needs to be provided, and i would appreciate any ideas of methods to achieve this on a mountain side location typically on a packed dirt surface. Power and shelter are not an issue, it is the physical set up of the platform that we are looking for advice on.

Any insight or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Clarke
Senior Lecturer, Sport & Exercise Biomechanics
Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom

[Athanase KOLLIAS]

Re: Operation of a portable force platform on uneven/unlevel terrain

Hi Sarah,

Can I have some more info on the operation? What are the loads, contact time? Do you already have the forceplate?
I represent a start-up company building custom-made solutions in sports biomechanics and rehabilitation such as force plates and inertial sensors.

We had a similar problem three months ago, when have been asked to do measurements on a tennis court in order to study service technique.
So we built a force plate for this purpose with special characteristics: Light weight, powered from a laptop through USB, and the most important: it had 3 contact-points to the ground and not 4, so that it can be much more stable on uneven surface. We wanted to have separate measurements per leg so we fabricated 2 triangular force plates (total square surface: 80x80cm). The attachment was made with screws in the ground.

If you are interested for more information, please feel free to contact me or visit our website at www.kapa-invent.eu/force-plates

Athanase Kollias
KAPA-INVENT team
akollias@kapa-invent.eu

I am looking for advice from anyone who has set up or operated a portable force platform in an environment outside of a lab. I am aware that a stable and level base needs to be provided, and i would appreciate any ideas of methods to achieve this on a mountain side location typically on a packed dirt surface. Power and shelter are not an issue, it is the physical set up of the platform that we are looking for advice on.

Any insight or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Clarke
Senior Lecturer, Sport & Exercise Biomechanics
Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom