Fredrik Tuxen is the brains behind
Trackman, a radar device for measuring golfers’ strokes, developed in partnership with DTU students.
Two days was all it took Fredrik Tuxen to design a device for measuring the length and direction of golfers’ strokes. The concept was based on radar technology linked to the military instruments he worked with on a daily basis as head of development at Weibel Scientific. However, for financial reasons, it had to be possible to run the system on a standard computer rather than specially developed hardware.
Over the course of 48 hours, Fredrik Tuxen became convinced that the idea would work in practice. So he made the leap, teamed up with three other golfing enthusiasts, and founded the company TrackMan.
To start with, Fredrik Tuxen was the only member of the company staff with a technical education and the insight necessary to develop the algorithms, hardware, etc. to ensure that the 3D measurements of the golf strokes were sufficiently accurate.
“It was important for me to bring additional technological expertise into the company as soon as possible. So I struck up a partnership with DTU Electrical Engineering—my alma mater—which does a lot of work with electromagnetic systems. We’ve set up a number of exam and PhD projects, where students examine elements and conditions that may lay the foundations for new products at our company,” says Fredrik Tuxen.
For example, the measurement system has expanded to include not only the golf ball’s trajectory (the path of its flight, ed.), but also its speed and spin. In addition, the system measures the movement of the golf club immediately before it makes contact with the ball. A number of the DTU projects subsequently resulted in employment at TrackMan for the students in question.
Quicker path to goals
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“We put a lot of effort into the partnership with the DTU students. We consciously made it a priority, because it helps us to find a quicker path to our goals. It also means that we make high demands on our students—but this is something skilled people enjoy. The guidance from researchers at the department also assures an independent and unbiased view of our methods and provides valuable inspiration,” adds Fredrik Tuxen.
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Over the years, the partnership with DTU has expanded past the use of radar technology and microwaves, and now encompasses video tracking and image analysis. In combination with the radio technology, video tracking is sure to expand the areas of use for TrackMan products.
Twenty-five new employees in 2016
TrackMan is an ambitious company looking to become a world-leader in products for measuring sports performance. In addition to golf, the company has recently developed measurement devices for several other sports—with football a major focus area at present.
“There can be no doubt about where things are heading; increasingly advanced equipment is being developed for pretty much all sports. It’s more fun to take part in sports when you can measure your performance and use the results to find ways to improve,” explains Fredrik Tuxen, who anticipates increasing the staff of his company’s research department by 25 in 2016 alone.