Development of a Curling Stone Delivery Robot with High Delivery Reproducibility

Abstract

Curling is a two-player, zero-sum, finite, complete-information, uncertain game in which stones are delivered to a point approximately 37 m (120 ft). Despite its popularity, the dynamics of curling stones are unclear, and significant variations exist in the conditions of curling stones and curling sheets. It is essential to have a highly reproducible delivery apparatus that can perform tests in various environments to clarify stone dynamics and evaluate curling stones and sheets more accurately. In this study, we developed a delivery robot capable of delivering stones as quickly and accurately as, if not better than, a human using a large-diameter pneumatic cylinder. The delivery robot could deliver stones with high repeatability at 2.0 to 4.0 m/s by controlling the velocity of the pneumatic cylinder using multiple solenoid valves. In addition, we verified the accuracy of the robot’s velocity meter using motion capture to ensure that the throwing velocity measured by the delivery robot was sufficiently accurate. Finally, we conducted repeated delivery experiments using the delivery robot and demonstrated that the robot could deliver stones with high repeatability.