Rio Tinto Sport Innovation Challenge - Aurae
Team Members:
Sheng Cheng
(Innovation Design Engineering)
Chia-Hung Lin
(Innovation Design Engineering)
Charlotte Slingsby
(Innovation Design Engineering)
Setareh Shamdani
(Goble International Design)
Ａurae
Curling through Breathing
Aurae is a set of curling equipment, modified to help engage athletes with quadriplegia and neurodegenerative diseases. Using mouth-operated controls, players are able to twist delivery sticks using their tongue and control the force of the push-off with their breaths. The stones are then tracked by a brush where the sweeping is triggered by the second player’s mouth piece—controlling timing and speed of the brush. Aurae helps remove a physical barrier to the game, by allowing athletes to focus on strategy
Mouth Piece
Aurae mouth-piece houses sensors that con- trol the movement of the curling equipment. Athletes can use their tongue to control the speed of the sweeping brush, and the force of their breath to trigger the movement of the delivery stick.
Sweeping Broom
The broom is attached to a bar that runs along the curling sheet, tracking the position of the stone and moving ahead of it. Using the mouth-piece, the second player can then activate when the broom descends on ice and the speed with which it sweeps the surface.
Delivery Stick
Delivery Stick With the help of the mouth-piece, athletes can use their tongue to adjust the angle of the delivery stick. Then, using the force of the player's breath, the stick will be driven forward to push off the stone.
