FanStory.com - Saving Mr. Calvin - Chapter 36Aby Jim Wile

Chapter 36A

For the first few weeks, Abby did research on her own. As she told the group, we would be using a vast array of miniature servo motors in the suit. A servo motor is an electric motor that allows for precise control of angular or linear position, speed, and torque. It consists of a motor coupled to a sensor for positional feedback and a controller that regulates the motor’s movement according to a desired setpoint. As the thousands of servo motors would act as a group, she told me she needed to study an area of mathematics known as group theory, and she soon got immersed in such things as Frobenius groups and composition series. This was way beyond my mathematical knowledge, which extended no further than calculus, most of which I had forgotten by now. She needed someone with a good math background to bounce ideas off. E.J. has a fairly strong background in mathematics, so she called him up to invite him down. They began getting together a few times a week to go over ideas.

I attended the first meeting with them to hear Abby’s overview of what they needed to do. She started out with a question: “Have you ever seen a flock of birds, or a murmuration of birds to be precise, take off at the same time and fly in a coordinated manner, changing direction all at once?”

“Sure. I've always wondered how they do that,” said E.J.

“There are various theories. Some think it’s a rudimentary form of telepathy. Others think it’s like the wave going around a baseball stadium, where people see their nearest neighbors’ actions and time their own moves accordingly. But how they do it is not as important to us as the simple coordination that is necessary to make it happen.”

“And that’s what we have to achieve with our thousands of servo motors,” agreed E.J. He thought for a moment. “But do you picture it as more of the telepathic theory where the correct swing message is sent to all the servo motors at once, or will it be more like the baseball wave theory, where each servo motor is responding to what is happening with its neighbors? By this, of course, I mean the programming that supports them.”

“I think it has to be both. The correct swing is pre-programmed, which urges the wearer to swing a certain way, but the suit has to be able to respond to any deviation from this if the wearer overrides the correct way.”

We tossed around ideas for several hours. E.J. admitted that much of the mathematics was also beyond him, but he told us he would try to come up to speed on such areas as geometric group theory and vector spaces.

Over the next year, E.J. and Abby continued to meet for a few hours most weekends, developing the mathematical algorithms he could then apply his programming skills to. Abby admitted to me that we never could have succeeded in this without his help and his terrific programming ability. When they’d finally developed all the algorithms and had gotten the programming in place, they were ready for Eddie and me to apply it to our plans for the construction of the suit.

As Abby and E.J. had been developing the software, Eddie and I had likewise been working on the mechanical aspects of it. We discovered early on that the servo motors by themselves would not be quite powerful enough for all the intended actions of the suit. The main source of power is the wearer himself or herself; the servo motors help to guide this power in the correct way and respond to deviations. But we realized that this would need supplementation with a few strategically placed regular electric motors connected to hydraulic devices to provide the extra power needed, primarily in the armpit, right elbow, right hip, and wrist areas. Luckily, all of us on the design team, as well as Claire, were right-handed, so we only needed one prototype for a right-handed person.

For the past two years, it has been a true collaboration between the four of us, and after thousands of man hours and tens of thousands of dollars, we now have a working prototype and are ready to begin its testing.

Abby’s swing suit version 1 works like this: First of all, it’s parameter-driven and designed to be totally adjustable to the person wearing it. Before putting it on, you have to enter your height, weight, body type, age, physical condition, and answer a number of other questions to assess your current skill level.

Future models will be able to calibrate the device for you after you take a few practice swings in it, but for now, you have to manually input much of the data.

You also need to tell it what percentage of a full swing you wish to use; there’s a little keypad on the side for that. If you can estimate the carry distance of your shot correctly, you can input that instead, and the device will cause you to swing the proper amount, but it assumes you are using the correct club for the shot. Even if you were built like Tiger Woods, you wouldn’t be able to hit, say, a 9-iron 250 yards.

There are safety considerations built into it. For example, Claire wouldn’t be able to input a carry distance of 250 yards because, with her size and body type, there’s no way she could hit a ball safely that far, even with her driver.

The golfing suit fits over your arms and torso, as far down as the bottom of your knees. That way, it can train all your golfing muscles to get you to swing on the correct plane at the same tempo and timing on every swing.

The suit is made of stretchable fabric, worn under the clothes, and is one-size-fits-all for now, with future plans for small, medium, large, and extra-large sizes. Hand-sewn into the suit are the several thousand tiny servo motors and the additional motors and hydraulics, which urge you to swing the correct way.

We patterned the “ideal” swing after mine because I have a very natural-looking swing with a tempo, timing, and consistency that are quite effective. Future models will allow golfers to set the tempo of their swings to match their own natural tendencies. And even newer versions will enable golfers to adopt the swings of different professional golfers, assuming they give us permission to measure their swings.

The suit is for training purposes only and cannot be legally worn during, say, a tournament, as the Rules of Golf are very strict about prohibiting the use of training aids.

I could talk about all this for hours, but won’t go into any more details. The prototype is ready for Abby to try it out for the first time, which will be tomorrow. A few weeks ago, I talked E.J. into planning a little surprise for her when she takes her first swing in it.