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:

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.

Group 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.

Geoff Loves Team 6:

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.