The Crazy Cool CLauncher

Pictured is The Crazy Cool CLauncher, the Kinect, and a Reese's cup ready for launching.

Inspiration

What it does

The CLauncher uses a Microsoft Kinect to detect a human who is raising their hand above their head. The position of that person is sent to an Arduino-controlled machine that swivels and tilts and uses a cross-bow inspired linear accelerator to send a cookie flying in a perfect arc toward the user.

How we built it

We made full use of the materials and resources available to us. Tiffany and Radha made and modified several DXF and STL files for the laser cutters and 3D printers. Most of those parts ended up being used in the structure of the CLauncher.

Challenges I ran into

The real problems with our project revolved around a lack of suitable motors and difficulties with the Kinect. The stepper motors we initially chose to use were not nearly strong enough to control the azimuth and the 'pull-back' action of the launcher, so we ended up using DC motors with a complex system of pulleys to reduce the torque required by the motors. We also had trouble setting up the libraries and dependencies required to develop applications for the Kinect, which set back progress for a while. However our main programmer Teddy was able get a working program in the end.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

The pulley system. The underpowered stepper motors seemed like a dealbreaker at first, but the pulley system provided a viable alternative that used more powerful but less precise motors.

*That it works. Also that our team work paid off in the end.