Specifications of BioRowTel Measurement system

Why BioRowTel?
With modern development of technology, many measurement system became available for rowing
applications. These systems could be classified based the following measurements methods:
• Wired vs wireless technologies;
• Oar based vs. gate based power measurements;
• Level of accuracy, compatibility, easiness of installation, etc.
Our BioRowTel system is a state-of-art product based on our more than 30 years’ experience in Rowing
Biomechanics, so it measures the most essential components of rowing technique in the most practical, accurate and
reliable way. The system has the following advantages:
• BioRowTel combines both wired and wireless technology for the most reliable and accurate
measurements. Synchronisation of rower’s efforts is hugely important in rowing, but it is impossible to achieve a
perfect measurements synchronisation with wireless systems. Therefore, BioRowTel system uses wired
technology for the most accurate data collection, and combines them with wireless technology for immediate
feedback, where timing is not so critical.
• BioRowTel uses the most accurate method for measurement of rowing power, which is the most
important variable in Rowing Biomechanics. The power is applied by a rower to the oar handle, so if the force is
measured at the gate, the length of acting inboard lever needed for power calculation, but it is unknown and may
vary from rower to rower and during the stroke. Therefore, gate-based systems may produce up to ±20% error in
rowing power calculation, while accuracy of BioRowTel is ±1%.
• BioRowTel is the most cost-effective and practical tool for Rowing Biomechanics. It uses the same
small and inexpensive force sensor (£250 only) in any boat type, while in gate-based systems, you have to buy
bulky expensive oarlocks separately for sweep and sculling boats.
• BioRowTel is the most practical system for both rowers and rowing scientists: the whole system for
an eight and all other boat types weight only 5kg and can be mounted on a boat in minutes and absolutely
transparent for rowers, With other systems, you have to carry heavy suitcases, spend a lot of time on installation,
then rowers will complain that they are hot comfortable with amended rigging settings in the boat.
• With BioRowTel you will receive a complete knowledge base for analysis and evaluation of rowing
technique, produces using our database of more than 100,000 samples from rowers of all levels from Olympic
champions down to beginners. No other system have anything close to our unique averaging algorithm allows
very reliable and effective data processing. The
software also includes the complete set of essential Oar Angle
rowing factors, which allows very informative and sensors
productive feedback for rowers and coaches.
• BioRowTel is an open system build by
rowing scientist for scientists and other people
interested in Rowing Biomechanics research. You can
plug-in any of your custom made sensor, or order it
from BioRow, if you have specific interests. Our system Handle Force
is absolutely transparent, so you can check calibration
sensors
of any sensor and all calculation methods to provide
the highest accuracy, while in other systems, very
often you don’t really know what you are measuring.
BioRowTel system has a scalable design, where the main Master, unit can be connected to a chain of extension
units – Slaves. Master unit provides power and perfect synchronisation of all Slave units, and sensors can be plugged
into both of them
Technical data of BioRowTel system
Master unit v.5 contains the following features:

• A data logger for 100+ hours of recording with 14 bit

resolution (less than 0.01% error) at programmable 25-
100Hz sampling frequency,
• Li-Ion battery to power the whole system for 8+ hours,
with inbuilt automatic charger for +5V input from any USB
source,
• 3D accelerometer and 3D gyro for the most accurate
determination of the movement of the rower-boat system,
• Modern GPS receiver (10Hz) and impeller input for
versatile measurements of the boat speed on both steady
lakes and rivers with current,
• Input for 8 analogue channels, which is enough for a single
or pair,
• After data collection, the Master unit can be connected to
a PC as an external drive for seamless data transfer,
• The Master unit can connect wirelessly using unbuilt BLE module with up to four NK EmPower instrumented
oarlocks, which makes possible to receive per-stroke data from the connected oarlocks (the same data
available upon connection to the NK Speed Coach),
and also real-time data, like the “force-curve”.
Information from the oarlocks could be recorded in
the Master unit together with other data,
• Master unit can transmit data wirelessly through
Wi-Fi to a tablet computer (up to 100m away),
where a coach can see synchronised force curves,
power output of each crew member and other
biomechanical values (stroke length, average
forces, “slip” and “wash”, etc.),
• Dimensions of the Master unit: 120x80x60mm,
weight 335g.

Slave extension unit

While the Master unit only is sufficient for measurements in small boats
(singles and pairs), it can be easily extended with Slave units to measure bigger
boats. Similar to the Master, each Slave has two parts, which means it can
measure two oars. Therefore, one Slave extension unit is required to measure
double or four, three units required for a quadruple scull or eight.
Slaves are connected with Master and between themselves with cables in a
chain, which provides power, synchronisation and data stream.
• Dimensions of the Slave unit: 65x50x35mm, weight 100g.

2D oar angle sensor

This device measures movements of the oar shaft in horizontal and
vertical planes, which allows defining the track of the blade relative to
water level and hence catch and release slips and effective angles. It can be
mounted on the top of the pin in seconds and works with all known boat
and rigger types, with both sculling and sweep ones. The sensor holds the
oar shaft with flexible bracket on the end of connecting row, which is also
used for connection of the handle force sensor.
The sensor is supplied pre-calibrated and do not need calibration. It
only needs setting zero angle, which takes 5 seconds at the start of the
measurements.
• Dimensions of the oar angle sensor: 90x75x25mm, weight 200g.
Handle force sensor
The handle force is a versatile, accurate, reliable and lightweight
instrument for measurements rower’s force and power. It works with
all known oar types, the same sensor can be used with sweep or
sculling oars. The sensor is attached to the oar shaft with a house
clamp, which takes 10-15s to install or remove it.
The sensor uses the oar shaft as the load cell and measures its
bend during the stroke. As all shafts have different stiffness properties,
each sensor require calibration after installation. With a special pre-calibrated sensor and our unique calibration
method, it takes 10-15s to calibrate each oar.
• Dimensions of the handle force sensor: 200x25x20mm, weight 95g.

Seat position sensor

Seat movement is very important in rowing, because it closely
related to the movements of rower’s centre of mass CM, which
accelerations and synchronisation in a crew are critical for rowing
efficiency and performance.
BioRowTel is the only system on the market, which supplied with
seat position sensors as a standard configuration. The sensor can be
mounted on the boat deck in seconds and connected to the seat with
a spring-loaded string.
The same sensor can be mounted on a mast (supplied) and used
for measurements of shoulders movements in small boats, which
allows to define rowing style and in-depth analysis of the technique.
• Dimensions of the seat position sensor: diameter 48mm, height 45mm, weight 130g.

BioRowTel software
The key part of the BioRowTel data analysis is an algorithm of data averaging, which allows the conversion of
information collected from an unlimited number of cycles into one typical stroke cycle. It was developed from 1991
and was used for more than 25 years for data analysis both in a boat and on a
rowing machine, as well as in other cyclic sports (canoeing and swimming). This
method allows effective data analysis, storage and comparison, and very clear
feedback and interpretation .
The package consists of two parts:
• Standalone BioRowTel.exe program, which provides input of primary
settings, automatic sensors calibration, real time data acquisition and
immediate feedback, raw data storage and recovery, samples selection
and data averaging algorithm.
Handle • Once averaged samples are processed, they can be loaded into the second
600 Force (N)
Stroke part of the package BioRow Reports.xls – Microsoft Excel application for
31 400
Rates
45
20 35 data analysis and producing reports, which take two mouse clicks. All
24 37 200 knowledge base and target values are included. Reports can be printed in
28 39 Oar Angle
0
-50 -25 0 25 five languages and you can easily add your own language translating a few
words.
The software works under Windows from XP to v.10, requires at least 1366x768 screen resolution, 2Gb memory
50 Mb disk space. Dedicated PC and MS Excel spreadsheets can be supplied separately.

©2018 BioRow™ Ltd.

Dr. Valery Kleshnev
valery@biorow.com,
www.biorow.com