Construction and adaptation of a robotic equipment for blocking execution in sitting volleyball practices

The Paralympic sports performed individually concentrate in general most of the technological development in equipment and auxiliary devices, while team modalities still lack implements that help improve practice and competition. This study aims to create blocking equipment that can reproduce human movement in both single-block and double-block fundamentals in sitting volleyball.

To do so, twenty-four athletes who practice sitting volleyball were chosen from a team based in Suzano, twelve of them being women and twelve men, with averages of 34.6 ± 7.8 for age in years, 10.3 ± 3.6 for years practicing the sport, and 10 ± 3.6 for years of functional classification. Each athlete performed 15 repetitions of each fundamental without breaks, which was established as an ideal pattern. After the analysis of movements, the data obtained during the footage with the athletes was applied to elaborate and build the equipment, and then the volunteers executed the same movements using the device to test its functionality.

The results from the footage in which the equipment was validated show a similar execution to the variables analyzed in the record made with the athletes. The assembly of the equipment met the requirements for measurement, positioning, potency, and adjustment proposed in the study.

This study enabled the construction of equipment for auxiliary athletes during practices of sitting volleyball, and it demonstrated an important level of similarity between the data achieved regarding the motor gestures performed by the athletes and those executed by the device.