The Artificial Athlete or Berlin Athlete

One of the tools used by Casali Sport’s team in the stage prior to the construction of athletics tracks or playgrounds, is the Artificial Athlete, also known as the Berlin Athlete.

This is a professional tester machine capable of detecting, on a sample basis, the performance characteristics of a sports surface in terms of shock absorption (KA), vertical deformation (VD) and, where required, the restitution of elastic energy (ER), making it possible to evaluate with extreme precision exactly what kind of resurfacing is required.

The artificial athlete is above all used in the preventive evaluation of athletic tracks, which are subject to the very strict IAAF certification requirements, but is also very useful for sports fields whose floors must ensure, in accordance with standard EN 14904 (for indoor surfaces) and standard EN 14877 (for outdoor surfaces), shock absorption properties of more than 25%; in order to reduce the stress on the athlete’s joints.

The measurements taken by the Berlin athlete make it possible to determine the most suitable and definitive type of intervention for the sports surface studied; if on one hand resurfacing is the most common way to restore the correct technical performance of the surface, it may sometimes be necessary to completely remove the coating and build the track or field from scratch.

The response of the Berlin athlete ensures that works are carried out without any margin of error.

Casali testing with the Berlin athlete is available on request.