Design and development of a slow badminton shuttlecock

Abstract

Shuttlecocks available in the market today are only suitable for professional or skilled

badminton players. Beginners and young children often find difficulties in striking these

shuttlecocks because the flight speeds of shuttlecocks are simply too fast for them. This project

investigates possible structural characteristics that may affect the flight speed of a shuttlecock,

and the factors that could significantly reduce the shuttlecock’s speed were being identified and

incorporated in designing a ‘slow’ badminton shuttlecock for beginners or young children.

In this project, shuttlecocks were structurally modified into designs which made use of

factors such as increase in frontal area and spinning motion to slow down their flight speed. The

flight velocities of the modified shuttlecocks were calculated using kinematic approach in motion

analysis. The results showed that structural differences (which include frontal area to mass ratio,

height and angle of skirt, and material stiffness) play an important part in determining the flight

speed of a shuttlecock. The ‘slow’ shuttlecock was found to be 55.26% slower than the

conventional feather shuttlecock. This project also provide the direction for future developments

of the ‘slow’ shuttlecock or to slow down other flight projectiles and the descend of free falling

objects.