More and more sport clubs are switching from their natural stretch of grass to artificial ones. Artificial grass systems have several benefits over natural types of grass in that they are playable through out the year, durable, have the same look and feel as natural grass and can be recycled. Artificial grass, also known as artificial turf, can be used for various sports including but not limited to football, tennis and hockey.

An artificial grass system is usually made of several layers:

(1) Concrete or soil base layer

(2) Subbase; 30 - 50 cm of sand (stabilizing, drainage)

(3) Layer of lava rock; 5 - 10 cm (stability, flatness)

(4) Thin film of geotextile wrap; about 1 - 2 mm (pressure levelling)

(5) Shockpad; 1 - 5 cm (comfort, shock absorb)

(6) Backing, cloth to adhere the artifical fibres to; about 1 - 2 mm

(7) Artificial grass fibres turfed in the cloth; the fibres are about 5 cm in length are coated with silicone and after the tufting process are fixated to the cloth with latex.

(8) Sand and rubber infills. The concentration of the rubber infills (grains) together with the amount of sand controls the ball bounce, ball roll and traction and prevents injuries upon slidings and landings.

For my work at INTRON, I co-invented and implemented a wireless sensor system to monitor the condition of artificial grass. Actually, such a system has never been installed and used before, we are the first who implemented it. In fact, this is thus a world premier.

The first artificial grass system with wireless sensors is the soccerfield of the Heracles soccer club, Almelo, The Netherlands. We take care of the whole sensor system and are responsible for the data interpretation.

This so-called "smart soccerfield" is capable of wirelessly measuring movement on the field by using approximately 20 wireless movement sensors. The acquired data (which is transfered to INTRON via a secure connection) can be used to monitor the total amount of play-hours per sensor location, to register the frequency and amount of maintenance and to monitor the physical condition of the field.

More information can be found here, here and here.