Abstract
Pole vaulting is a sport in which an athlete clears the highest jump heights achievable in a competition. A vaulter takes off and reaches a given height due to their kinetic energy and joint torque generated during the vault which is applied to the pole, and, as a result, gets height. Therefore, the height obtained changes greatly with combination of various parameters, such as the pole characteristic, vaulter's weight, takeoff speed, and torque of each joint produced by a vaulter. The purpose of this research is to determine the optimal solution of such a combination problem. In this paper, a flexible multi-segment pole model ,a three-dimensional vaulter model and a genetic algorithm are used to solve the optimization problem of the pole stiffness distribution and joint torque of pole vaulting. A complete system model is used to study the effects of different initial conditions and the effect of time variations in the control torques during the vault. From the results, it was clarified that there is optimal pole characteristic which is linked to the vaulter's initial velocity and weight.
