Low-overshoot control method for tennis trainer based on active disturbance rejection control.

Authors

Jin Zhong, Chenhao Luo, Jin Chen

Published in

Frontiers in sports and active living. Volume 8. Pages 1832801. Epub Sep 28, 2026.

Abstract

Traditional tennis trainers employing passive return mechanisms (springs or rubber bands) suffer from fixed return angles, non-adjustable damping, inability to measure hitting speed, and monotonous training modes. To overcome these limitations, this paper presents an active return device based on a joint motor and proposes a low-overshoot control method using Nonlinear Active Disturbance Rejection Control (NLADRC). The device integrates a joint motor with an encoder, an embedded controller, and a striking target mounted on a rotating arm, enabling real-time speed calculation, adjustable damping, and precise active return. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of ADRC to an active return device for striking-sports training, and it constitutes the primary innovation of this work. In MATLAB simulations, NLADRC reduces the 0°→180° step-response overshoot by 82% and the post-disturbance settling time by 62.5% compared with a tuned PID controller. Hardware experiments on a prototype closely match the simulations, with a step-response overshoot of about 2.8% and a disturbance recovery time of about 0.4 s under NLADRC. A four-unit cooperative training system demonstrates sequential and random multi-target modes with audio-visual feedback, and a preliminary usability survey with 30 amateur players yields mean ratings above 4.2 out of 5 on five dimensions. These results validate the proposed device and controller and demonstrate the superiority of NLADRC over PID for this application together with acceptable preliminary usability; direct effects on tennis skill acquisition or training outcomes are beyond the scope of this study and remain to be examined in future longitudinal work.

PMID:
42865739
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Oct 2026.

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