DEWBOT XIII Shooter
It had been the team's intention and strategy for DEWBOT XIII to be a high-performance shooter (together with good rear running capabilities and a fast, reliable climb). Alas, we did not accomplish the critical shooting goal. Our shooter was definitely middling. While very consistent in its shooting and capable of shooting consistently at up to 6 balls/s, feed issues limited us to an average 2.5 balls/s. In addition, while shooter elevation and wheel speed are adjustable,we had a limited number of pre-set shooting solutions and limited objective data on which to base such solutions.
The Shooter System comprises several interacting components:
- Shooter
- Feeder
- Ball Pickup
- Hopper
Contents
Shooter
The shooter is a basic single-wheel shooter. While simple, this mechanism went through an enormous amount of testing and development, including multiple prototypes, the last few being CNC-produced.
Some key learnings:
- A flywheel reduces the magnitude of speed reduction while shooting, but not recovery time
- More power reduces speed recovery time
- Holes in balls (fuel) interacting randomly with thin shooter rails randomly throw off ball trajectory
- 6 inch wheels provide more consistency than 4 inch
- 2 inch wide wheels provide more consistency than 1 inch wide
- Printed guides expanding the ball contact area from narrow rails to >1/3rd circumference, thereby improving shooting consistency
Key design features:
- PID controlled wheel speed
- 3:1 reduction via 1-stage versaplanetary gearbox
- Up to (3) 775 Pro drive motors
- Adjustable shooting trajectory 60-85° from horizontal - adjustment via a quarter scale (large) servo