Golf Trainer

The Golf Trainer project was a device that helped an aspiring golfer to get the correct feel for how much force to apply at the ball when hitting. It worked by using a specially designed club head that attached to the device. You would start the swing at the point of contact with a ball and try to swing forward. The machine had force sensors that would measure a set force for a duration and then release the club. I worked very closely with an electrical and computer engineer to complete this project.

The biggest challenge on this project was engineering the load path through the unit to accurately measure the force. It needed to be in an injection moldable housing to reduce cost and weight but plastics generally are not great at handling the loads and they would break. My solution was to use a metal load path inside the unit that would attach in only one point to the plastic shell. This made the force measurement much more accurate and it made everything much stronger.

 The initial prototypes used archery release buckles that were controlled by internal servo motors. I was having a very difficult time getting them to be aligned correctly and function repeatably. I switched the mechanical releases to an electro magnet which solved all the issues. It also had the added benefit of removing most of the moving parts from the system which simplified the product, increased the reliability, and reduced the cost. 

This ended up being a very compact unit that was quite dense inside. I made a complete set of assembly instructions for the assembly factory which helped save a lot of time and waste.