We decided to build a dart throwing mechanism after Susan watched the World Championship of darts over winter break. The motion of dart throwing and the excitement of launching a projectile appealed to the group. We researched the kinematics of dart throwing before settling on a rough path and velocity we wanted our launcher to take.
We were inspired by this gif, although it shows an open-chain manipulator instead of a closed-chain.
The goals for this project were to:
- Create a mechanism with a quick release
- Have the release of the dart at a horizontal position
- Smooth release of dart
- Feedback control loop through PID control and accelerometer