Improving the picking-and-placing of a ball using simple rules derived from reduced models of arm links and joints

This paper presents simple rules to improve the efficiency of picking-and-placing a ball. A simple model of an upper limb was created to examine the gross motions associated with picking-and-placing a ball in sports such as rugby and American football. The research used the Lagrange formulation for a simple representation of the major links and joints of the upper limb. From the simple models, two simple rules were extracted to improve the efficiency of picking-and-placing the ball. Results from testing the use of the rules with both a simple mechanical arm and with human players are presented. Analysis and testing suggested that applying the rules could increase the speed of the pick-and-place movement by up to 17.5%.