For my final project I will make part of a ping pong ball machine. I am helping make an attachment that would load balls from a container and feed them into a ping pong ball launcher.
What will it do? This part will move one ping pong ball from a holding container to the spinning wheels.
Who's done what beforehand? Before, people have used high pressure air, hand loading, mechanical placement arms, or moving the balls along a track
What materials and components will be required? Stepper motor(at least one), a track or tube made of any firm material, possibly printed or laser cut acrylic, wooden, or cardboard parts for gears, pulley tracks, and stablizing frame parts.
Where will they come from? The lab and possibly Home Depot or hardware store.
How much will it cost? Little to nothing. Cost of replacing lab inventory. The parts can easily be made from available scrap materials.
What parts and systems will be made? A storage system and a transportation system together make a ball loading system.
What processes will be used? Laser cutting, shop bot cutting, milling and stuffing and programming electronics boards (input and output, possibly networking), press fit construction, possibly 3D printing and composites.
What tasks need to be completed? Design, materials testing, design and manufacture/fabrication, programming, testing.
What questions need to be answered? How will the ball approach the wheel assembly? and will it require force to move into pitching range for the wheel assembly?
What is the schedule? 1. Design 2. Test 3. Get Feedback 4. Repeat
How will it be evaluated? By repeatedly and consistently delivering individual ping pong balls sufficiently close enough to be pitched by a working set of launcher wheels.
Update 05/14/2013: I have my first working prototype. I am using a stepper motor to move the balls out individually almost like a turnstile. I also had an incident where a wheel was not fit well to a motor and it broke of sending projectile parts flying around the room. So we will continue developing better(and safer) versions in weeks to come. I will include pics or videos to show our progress.