DESCRIPTION

Hockey stick manufacturers wish to test their products for quality control and to help with the development of new models. However, there is currently no reliable and repeatable way of reproducing a slap shot that is representative of a real-life situation. Industrial robots currently used are poorly suited for this use and tend to break the sticks after only a couple of shots. Our goal is to reproduce a hockey player’s slap shot with a robotic arm. Both the dynamics of the shot and the robot’s reaction at ground contact are important to make sure it makes a realistic execution of a slap shot. Moreover, the robot’s binding will need to replicate the player’s grip and the loading phase of the stick prior to the impact with the puck. With this kind of tool, manufacturers will not only have a quick and reliable way to ensure quality control of their production, but they will also replace human testers which are too inconstant during experimentation. This could revolutionize the way hockey sticks are designed and produced.