Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras are working with the Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) in Bellary, Karnataka, to create a low-cost boxing analytics platform in order to increase India’s medal tally at the 2024 Olympics.
The Center of Excellence for Sports Science and Analytics at IIT Madras is developing a multi-version analytics platform called ‘Smartboxer,’ which will give Indian athletes a competitive advantage. It will use Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled wearable sensors and video cameras to provide feedback and performance assessments.
‘Smartboxer’ will be deployed to analyse the boxers’ performance at Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS). Based on the feedback from IIS, changes will be incorporated into the ‘Smartboxer’ analytics platform. This will enable the software to be effectively used to assist coaches and boxers.
“Sports engineering, a relatively new discipline, is an inter-disciplinary domain that requires application of mathematics, physics, Artificial Intelligence and IoT-driven wearables. Sports engineering will help to understand the physiology and bio-mechanics associated with a sport. This will aid in solving sporting problems and designing better sports equipment,” said the institute in its release.
‘Smartboxer’ can boost India’s medal tally at the Olympics
Highlighting how ‘Smartboxer’ can boost India’s medal tally at the Olympics, Prof. Ranganathan Srinivasan, Head, Center of Excellence for Sports Science and Analytics, IIT Madras and Adjunct Faculty,
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “This technology that is being developed will act as a bridge between the coach and the elite athlete to identify, understand and improve the performance constructively. ‘Smartboxer’ is one among the many initiatives of IIT Madras aimed towards the Indian government’s ambitious goal of winning more medals in the Olympics. ”
John Warburton, Head of Youth Development (Boxing) at Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS), said, “This system will allow us to analyse a boxer’s performance in a way that aids progression. We will be able to highlight to the boxers their strengths as well as areas that require development such as patterns of movement, activity levels, punch and defensive repertoires – both, technically and tactically. I am greatly excited by the system’s potential to use data and artificial intelligence in a bid to identify coaching points and support our observations of the athletes.”
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