Desarrollo del prototipo de un dispositivo para la medición de parámetros del salto vertical “UPSJUMP”

Abstract

Physical activity in people has represented through time the best preventive method against diseases. According to the needs and/or preferences, there are different sports disciplines for which the physical capacities of strength, endurance, speed and flexibility can be trained in a combined or specific way. Among the disciplines that combine these capacities are athletics, basketball and volleyball, in which the evaluation of their performance depends on the evaluation of the vertical jump exercise. For this case, the recording of parameters such as flight time, jump height and specific power are key. This work proposes the development of a prototype biomechanical device called UPSJUMP (UJ) that measures the aforementioned parameters. The UJ device was designed and implemented using four load cells, an Arduino microcontroller system and an interface developed in Thingsboard.cloud. Subsequently, a technical study of physical evaluation of vertical jumps was performed with thirty participants to compare the measurements of flight time (s), jump height (cm) and specific power (W/kg) of the UJ with optical data acquisition system called “OPTOJUMP” (OJ) as a standard device. The results of the statistical analysis indicate a positive correlation of flight time of 0.7 for jump height of 0.9 and for specific power of 0.7, which allow us to corroborate the validity of the UJ device measurements.