Identification of Hand Tremor Levels in Shooting Activities Under Different Shooting Positions Using a Low-Cost and Portable System

The accuracy level is important in shooting activities and depends on many factors, such as hand tremors as body vibration and shooting position. Achieving high accuracy in different shooters is challenging, especially in the case of different shooting positions. However, there is a lack of information about the influence of shooting positions and experiences on a shooter's body vibration and accuracy levels. Thus, this study aims to develop a portable and low-cost hand tremor measurement device (as a function of body vibration) to identify the influence of hand movement on shooting accuracy. For this purpose, low-cost accelerometer sensors and a microcontroller were used as the measurement kit. Three different shooting positions (squatting, standing, and prone) were analyzed. The shooters were classified into novice and expert groups. Each group had five participants with standard fire guns and accelerometer kits. These participants were asked to shoot the target to get their best accuracy. Besides, the hand tremor level data from the self-developed kit were recorded to investigate the hand tremors. The results show that the novice participants have more hand tremors in all shooting positions. There are significant differences between the squatting, standing, and prone positions in hand tremors for novice and expert participants. In the expert group, the prone and squatting positions have the least vibration level, indicated by the least acceleration (0.01 - 0.04 m/s2 for the expert group and 0.02 - 0.11 m/s2 for the novice group). The best accuracy for all positions is also obtained from expert shooters. It can be concluded that different shooting positions are related to the body vibrations. The expert shooters have a lower body vibration than the novice participants. The hand tremor levels may influence the accuracy level since different shooting positions and experiences have different vibration and accuracy levels.