Senior Project assistance - Automated pneumatic tennis ball

Show us your pneumatic spud gun! Discuss pneumatic (compressed gas) powered potato guns and related accessories. Valve types, actuation, pipe, materials, fittings, compressors, safety, gas choices, and more.
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roboman
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Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:22 pm

What exactly are you going to be shooting?
Team PSU
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Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:42 pm

Yes, all parts are SCH40 except the hex head cap (SCH80), and all blue pieces are SDR21.

Shooting tennis balls
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Ragnarok
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Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:50 pm

roboman wrote:What exactly are you going to be shooting?
Team PSU wrote:Shooting tennis balls
That's not the question he was asking. He was asking what the target was going to be for demonstrating your target recognition.

It would not be appropriate for this to be a person, for obvious safety reasons (not to mention that such a thing is against forum rules).
Does that thing kinda look like a big cat to you?
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Combustion Monkey
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Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:06 pm

Just a small side question. Could the mechanisms in the above animations be applied to a combustion cannons as well?
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MaxuS the 2nd
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Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:09 pm

Team PSU wrote:Yes, all parts are SCH40 except the hex head cap (SCH80), and all blue pieces are SDR21.

Shooting tennis balls
Those are just wall thicknesses.
Do they have the appropriate pressure ratings written on them?
Chuck it if it says DWV.

Not being pedantic, just preventing injury.
Badman
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MrCrowley
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Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:22 pm

Chuck it if it says DWV.
Not necessarily, it could say both NSF-PW and NSF-DWV on it.

As long as it has a pressure rating or NSF-PW, it's fine to use.
Team PSU
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Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:28 pm

Yes, all parts are pressure rated, and obviously the target is not a human, considering it's a school project.

The target is either a large shape or color or Infrared emission. This is our biggest challenge right now- the target acquisition system. Most IR systems are only good up to like 80cm, not near the distance we are trying to get.

Anyone have other ideas?
clide
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Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:06 pm

Not sure what the max range is on them, but wiimotes are infrared sensors and there is a lot of documentation out there are interfacing them with a computer. With two of them you can do 3d position detection of an infrared object.

Edit: Here is one example.
http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~fikkertfw ... capita.pdf
<a href="http://gbcannon.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://gbcannon.com/pics/misc/pixel.png" border="0"></a>latest update - debut of the cardapult
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roboman
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Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:42 pm

Webcams will work to. That's what is used on most "sentry bot" designs.
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grock
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Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:43 am

on the sprinkler valve thing, if you put a hose barb on the valve instead of a blowgun, then run some pressure rated hose from the barb to your blowgun, but you cant really get too much remote distance without, well, a really long hose. a better idea might be to use about a foot of hose and make some kind of actuator to press the blowgun trigger
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roboman
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Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:58 am

The problem with that is he needs to be able to autonomously trigger the cannon, without any human interaction.
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