A Smart Coilgun

Over IAP, I was inspired by the futuristic weapons of Cyberpunk 2077, and I am building a smart coilgun that automatically tracks targets and adjusts the output projectile’s direction accordingly.

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Inspiration

After exploring the buggy world of Cyberpunk 2077 and enduring its many crashes, I was interested in trying to realize some of the fantastical ideas of the games . While making cybernetic eyes are out of the question at this point, the futuristics, smart weapons piqued my interest. Simply put, these guns would automatically target nearby enemies and the bullet’s trajectory would be altered to always give the perfect shot, no matter how poor my aim was.

As I have some experience in the past building my own coilgun turret, I decided to design the smart weapon as a coilgun as well.

What it does

My design of the smart Coilgun is a two-stage magnetic launcher with four side coils at the end of the barrel that will alter the trajectory of the projectile. The capacitors for the control coils will be precisely controlled by a small camera on the front of the barrell, tracking whatever it registers as a target

How we built it

I started by designing and then 3D printing the frame of the magnetic launcher, wrapping the two primary coils and the control coil with copper wire. I then wired the charging circuits together according to the attached circuit pictures. However, since it's in a developmental state, I still need to work on my overall wire management after finalizing the control coil design.

Challenges we ran into

To start off, since I don't have a 3D printer of my own, I ordered had to order my printed parts from an outside supplier. Normally, the standard shipping time for their product is 4-5 days at the worst. However, I finally recieved the frame Friday morning, and I've only been able to do testing for the past 2 days.

Furthermore, when testing the directional coils, the projectile's exit velocity was definitely affected by them, but it wasn't very precise. I believe that the other nearby directional coil my have interfered with it.

Lastly, the camera was having issues with tracking the targets, and I will need to spend a lot more time with the code to debug it properly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm very proud of the coilgun, since it actually works and is able to redirect the projectile despite how jury-rigged it is.

'I am also proud that proper safety precations were used at all times and I was able to complete the coilgun portion without any accidental shocks from the capacitors.

What we learned

I've learned that using coils with discharging capacitors right next to coils another can cause problems with induced emf.

Additionally, in my research, I also learned from coilgun forum that seperating each layer of copper wire with electrical tape help with the final velocity of the projectile.

What's next for A Smart Coilgun

I plan to redesign the frame and seperate the controlling coils to minimize whatever interference they may recieve. I may also test other capacitors for the controls coils, and as well as integrate the camera in the final design.

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