Successful KickFlip: Dynamic Analysis and Influencing Factors of the Skateboard KickFlip Motion

Abstract

This paper studies the Flick action in skateboarding by constructing a rigid-body dynamics model of the skateboard’s airborne motion and combining it with measured data from the MPU6050 inertial measurement unit (IMU). In the experiment, a miniature skateboard equipped with an MPU6050 was used to measure angular velocity and attitude angles during flipping. In the theory part, a coordinate system with the skateboard’s center of mass as the origin was established, the torques about the X and Y axes caused by the Flick force were derived, and the variation law of the skateboard’s flipping attitude in the air was numerically simulated. By comparing the simulation with measured data, the rationality of the model was verified and the sources of error were discussed. The results show that the theoretical model can better predict the roll flipping trend about the skateboard’s longitudinal axis (X axis), and the error between the simulated curve and the experimental curve is controlled within ±5%.