Industry Collaborations

The laboratory regularly cooperates with industry partners who seek expertise in human ergonomics, movement physiology, and biomechanics. We have conducted the human testing portions of federally funded and industry-sponsored studies that developed new health and safety products, new tools to record human motion, or new product designs for the sport industry. See a few examples below:


Vibration behavior of novel tennis racquet design and its effect on muscle fatigue

Global sporting goods manufacturer Wilson Sporting Goods Company contracted the School of Kinesiology’s Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory to field-test  a new line of high-technology performance tennis rackets. The study measured the mechanical vibration behavior of the racquet and its transfer to the player’s hand and arm while  assessing electrophysiological markers of muscle fatigue. The participants were expert players recruited from the U of M varsity tennis men’s and women’s teams, and testing took place at the U of M Tennis Center.

Testing setup for tennis player

Relevant publication:

Vibration-Damping technology in tennis racquets: Effects on vibration transfer to the arm, muscle fatigue and tennis performance. Yeh IL, Elangovan N, Feczer R, Khosravani S, Mahnan A, Konczak J. Sports Med Health Sci. 2019 Sep 10;1(1):49-58. doi: 10.1016/j.smhs.2019.09.001. eCollection 2019 Dec.