A new ball launching system with controlled flight parameters for catching experiments

Systematic investigations of sensorimotor control of interceptive actions in naturalistic conditions, such as catching or hitting a ball moving in three-dimensional space, requires precise control of the projectile flight parameters and of the associated visual stimuli. Such control is challenging when air drag cannot be neglected because the mapping of launch parameters into flight parameters cannot be computed analytically. We designed, calibrated, and experimentally validated an actuated launching apparatus that can control the average spatial position and flight duration of a ball at a given distance from a fixed launch location. The apparatus was constructed by mounting a ball launching machine with adjustable delivery speed on an actuated structure capable of changing the spatial orientation of the launch axis while projecting balls through a hole in a screen hiding the apparatus. The calibration procedure relied on tracking the balls with a motion capture system and on approximating the mapping of launch parameters into flight parameters by means of polynomials functions. Polynomials were also used to estimate the variability of the flight parameters. The coefficients of these polynomials were obtained using the launch and flight parameters of 660 launches with 65 different initial conditions. The relative accuracy and precision of the apparatus were larger than 98% for flight times and larger than 96% for ball heights at a distance of 6m from the screen. Such novel apparatus, by reliably and automatically controlling desired ball flight characteristics without neglecting air drag, allows for a systematic investigation of naturalistic interceptive tasks.

[1]  John P. Wann,et al.  Anticipating arrival: is the tau margin a specious theory? , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[2]  F. Lacquaniti,et al.  Adaptation to suppression of visual information during catching , 1989, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[3]  Simon J. Bennett,et al.  Advance knowledge effects on kinematics of one-handed catching , 2010, Experimental Brain Research.

[4]  Anne-Marie Brouwer,et al.  Hitting moving objects: is target speed used in guiding the hand? , 2002, Experimental Brain Research.

[5]  D. Regan,et al.  Looming detectors in the human visual pathway , 1978, Vision Research.

[6]  Anne-Marie Brouwer,et al.  Hitting moving targets , 1998, Experimental Brain Research.

[7]  D Regan,et al.  Visual factors in hitting and catching. , 1997, Journal of sports sciences.

[8]  J. Tresilian,et al.  a moving target: effects of temporal precision constraints and movement amplitude , 2022 .

[9]  Gilles Montagne,et al.  Reorganization of catching coordination under varying temporal constraints. , 2006, Motor control.

[10]  J. F. Soechting,et al.  Target Interception: Hand–Eye Coordination and Strategies , 2007, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[11]  M K Kaiser,et al.  How baseball outfielders determine where to run to catch fly balls. , 1995, Science.

[12]  D. N. Lee.  The optic flow field: the foundation of vision. , 1980, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[13]  E Brenner,et al.  Hitting moving objects. The dependency of hand velocity on the speed of the target. , 2000, Experimental brain research.

[14]  F. Lacquaniti,et al.  Visuo-motor coordination and internal models for object interception , 2009, Experimental Brain Research.

[15]  N Reed,et al.  Toward a unified fielder theory: what we do not yet know about how people run to catch a ball. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[16]  J R Tresilian,et al.  Analysis of recent empirical challenges to an account of interceptive timing , 1999, Perception & psychophysics.

[17]  J. Tresilian.  Visually timed action: time-out for ‘tau’? , 1999, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[18]  Michael F. Land,et al.  From eye movements to actions: how batsmen hit the ball , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[19]  Volker Dürr,et al.  Inter-joint coupling and joint angle synergies of human catching movements. , 2010, Human movement science.

[20]  C Button,et al.  Mechanical perturbation of the wrist during one-handed catching. , 2000, Acta psychologica.

[21]  F. C. Bakker,et al.  Catching balls: how to get the hand to the right place at the right time. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[22]  Jeroen B. J. Smeets,et al.  Multiple information sources in interceptive timing , 1997 .

[23]  Eli Brenner,et al.  Flexibility in intercepting moving objects. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[24]  Joan López-Moliner,et al.  Motion signal and the perceived positions of moving objects. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[25]  Gilles Montagne,et al.  Movement reversals in ball catching , 1999, Experimental Brain Research.

[26]  Joan López-Moliner,et al.  Effects of texture and shape on perceived time to passage: Knowing “what” influences judging “when” , 2007, Perception & psychophysics.

[27]  J. Tresilian,et al.  Manual interception of moving targets in two dimensions: Performance and space-time accuracy , 2009, Brain Research.

[28]  Francesco Lacquaniti,et al.  Anticipating the effects of gravity when intercepting moving objects: differentiating up and down based on nonvisual cues. , 2005, Journal of neurophysiology.

[29]  James R. Tresilian,et al.  Systematic changes in the duration and precision of interception in response to variation of amplitude and effector size , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

[30]  P. McLeod,et al.  Running to catch the ball , 1993, Nature.

[31]  Keith Davids,et al.  Anticipatory responses to perturbation of co-ordination in one-handed catching. , 2002, Acta psychologica.

[32]  F. Lacquaniti,et al.  Cognitive, perceptual and action-oriented representations of falling objects , 2005, Neuropsychologia.

[33]  Lee Dn,et al.  The optic flow field: the foundation of vision. , 1980 .

[34]  Anne-Marie Brouwer,et al.  Hitting moving objects , 2000, Experimental Brain Research.

[35]  S Bennett,et al.  Timing a one-handed catch. I. Effects of telestereoscopic viewing. , 1999, Experimental brain research.

[36]  M. F.,et al.  Bibliography , 1985, Experimental Gerontology.

[37]  N. A. Borghese,et al.  Time-varying mechanical behavior of multijointed arm in man. , 1993, Journal of neurophysiology.

[38]  Joan López-Moliner,et al.  Interceptive timing: prior knowledge matters. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[39]  M. Cynader,et al.  The visual perception of motion in depth. , 1979, Scientific American.

[40]  Keith Davids,et al.  Interceptive actions in sport : information and movement , 2002 .

[41]  Gilles Montagne,et al.  Planning and on-line control of catching as a function of perceptual-motor constraints. , 2007, Acta psychologica.

[42]  F. C. Bakker,et al.  The effects of baseball experience on movement initiation in catching fly balls. , 1997, Journal of sports sciences.

[43]  Anne-Marie Brouwer,et al.  Perception of acceleration with short presentation times: Can acceleration be used in interception? , 2001, Perception & psychophysics.

[44]  R. Shepard.  Perceptual-cognitive universals as reflections of the world. , 2001, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[45]  Joost C. Dessing,et al.  Adaptations of lateral hand movements to early and late visual occlusion in catching , 2009, Experimental Brain Research.

[46]  K. Davids,et al.  Timing a one-handed catch , 1999, Experimental Brain Research.

[47]  G. Montagne,et al.  The control and coordination of one-handed catching: the effect of temporal constraints , 1994, Experimental Brain Research.

[48]  F. Lacquaniti,et al.  Anticipatory and reflex coactivation of antagonist muscles in catching , 1987, Brain Research.

[49]  F. Lacquaniti,et al.  Fast adaptation of the internal model of gravity for manual interceptions: evidence for event-dependent learning. , 2005, Journal of neurophysiology.