Tennis Ball Launcher

Place for Progress Documentation

Defective Stapler:

11/15/22 - Initially, we went through several ideas including a catapult, trebuchet, and ballista. However, we were inspired by a broken stapler that we found in Bin 23 (Springs) and we decided to make a cannon-esque tennis ball launcher made from similar parts, except scaled up. We plan on acquiring more parts over the weekend (such as a larger spring), but we currently have our main tube, which is made of cardboard. Our overall idea is to have a tube that has a spring that will be pulled back and shove the tennis ball with a lot of force. That will be all. :)

Max's Backhand:

Prototype Slingshot

11/15/2022 - We did some rough prototyping, and we're planning on doing a slingshot-esque design. We also decided on a team name (which is above), with our launcher, Match Point. We are going to do a custom carriage for the tennis ball to optimize release as well as holding. Combined with our tensioned surgical tubing, we think we will do quite well in the distance competition.

Tennis Ball Carriage

11/22/2022 - We did some more prototyping and also created some CAD for our whole setup as well as for a ball carriage. Pictures of the prototype and carriage are below. We found that depending on how the surgical tubing is mounted, it may cause torsion which may cause the ball to not launch.

Team 5:

11/15/2022 - After crude prototyping and designing, we have determined to use a catapult-like mechanism where tension would be achieved with rubber tubing and a variable (temporary) release mechanism. We collected necessary resources, started basic prototyping and construction, and discussed safety options.

11/22/2022 - Today, we started CAD and designed a rough model of the launch frame and a possible release mechanism. After doing some rough designing, we switched back to our prototyping and screwed together a base and standoffs for the launcher. We plan to continue this prototyping next week, including attaching the channels down the center and beginning to attach the surgical tubing section to the top of the standoffs.

Geoff Loves Team 6:

11/15/22- Today, we did some prototyping of a Catapult-based design. We also were able to test in a stairway and in the hallway where H21 is. Geoff's dedication to helping us led us to name our team after him, and we named our launcher "Geoff's Heart & Soul". We tested and we found out that it launched better when we added a hard stop for our catapult, and we were able to launch it about 10 feet. Further advancements, including potentially using a spring-loaded hammer to slam down on our launcher, will likely increase our launch distance.

Geoff Loves Team 6's CADded Tennis Ball Launcher

Geoff Loves Team 6's CADded Launcher Hard Stop Math

11/22/22- We made a basic model of our launcher in CAD (see right) and tested again to find the best location for a hard stop. We are currently prototyping a stand for our launcher to attach our hard stop to, and a spot where we can add the mechanism (spring loaded hammer(?)) we will use to hit one end of our launcher and launch the tennis ball. We used CAD to create some measurements for the angle at which we want our launcher to hit our hard stop (see right). Next week, we are planning on further prototyping and building our launcher mount and adding to our CAD assembly.