Inspiration
We often find downtimes where we want to do some light exercises. Throwing a ball is perfect, but it's not easy to find another person to throw the ball to. We realized that we wanted to make a machine that can substitute the role of a partner... hence the creation of PitchPartner!
What it does
PitchPartner is a motorized machine designed to catch and return a tennis ball automatically. When receiving the ball, the machine keeps a counter of how many throws were made. It then feeds the ball to the bike wheel propeller to be launched back! PitchPartner is portable, making it great to use out in an open field!
How we built it
The launcher is made with a bike tire connected to a drill that provides high rpm and torque. It's housed in a wooden frame that was nailed together. The catcher is a net (webbing) augmented with Raspberry Pi and sensors, namely the ultrasonic sensor for the speed detection and the button for the counter.
Challenges we ran into
We initially wanted to make a frisbee thrower and catcher, but due to the complexity arising from the asymmetrical nature of the frisbee (top down), we changed the trajectory of our project to use the tennis ball! Because our machine has fast, moving parts, we didn't feel comfortable to potentially have the frisbee be fed into the launcher upside down and thus causing safety problems.
Some of us are relative beginners to coding for Raspberry Pi (python), so we spend a lot of time to get the counter displayed on the 7-segment display. We were able to made it work when the programmer described in detail what type of problem he is encountering. We were able to draw knowledge from another programming language, C, to fix the problem.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
This was our first online hackathon! Our team was able to distribute work even though the hardware is built at one place. We played to our strengths and made quick decisions, enabling us to finish the PitchPartner on time!
What we learned
Our team members come from two different cities! One thing we learned is to bounce our ideas and problems off of each other because we all have different strengths and weaknesses. Clear explanation of the problems we faced helped us move closer to finding a solution.
What's next for PitchPartner
Installing a DC brushless motor can make the design even more compact and stable, not to mention true autonomy of the machine. We are also interested in having the machine change directions, thus capable of throwing left and right. Lastly, because we bought a used bike to extract its wheel, we think it would be very cool to incorporate the rest of the bike body to a steering system for the PitchPartner!
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