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article reviews developments in the use of Artificial Intelligence
(AI) in sports biomechanics over the last decade. It outlines possible
uses of Expert Systems as diagnostic tools for evaluating faults in
sports movements ('techniques') and presents some example knowledge
rules for such an expert system. It then compares the analysis of
sports techniques, in which Expert Systems have found little place
to date, with gait analysis, in which they are routinely used. Consideration
is then given to the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in sports
biomechanics, focusing on Kohonen self-organizing maps, which have
been the most widely used in technique analysis, and multi-layer networks,
which have been far more widely used in biomechanics in general. Examples
of the use of ANNs in sports biomechanics are presented for javelin
and discus throwing, shot putting and football kicking. I also present
an example of the use of Evolutionary Computation in movement optimization
in the soccer throw in, which predicted an optimal technique close
to that in the coaching literature. After briefly overviewing the
use of AI in both sports science and biomechanics in general, the
article concludes with some speculations about future uses of AI in
sports biomechanics.
KEY
WORDS: Artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks,
evolutionary computation, expert systems, Kohonen self-organizing
maps, sports biomechanics.
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