Table Tennis Machine Project

1.0 Statement of Need In the sport of table tennis one of the primary methods to improving play is to play against skillful players. For many people this can become difficult once their level of play surpasses that of their peers. To facilitate continuous improvement table tennis machines have been made and manufactured by a number of companies. Your task is to create such a machine that is capable of precision ball placement of a table tennis ball (2.5 gram, 40 mm diameter) to both sides of the table. Your machine will compete against your classmates in a competition based on accuracy and precision. Your design will be graded on the following criteria: 1. Performance in competition 2. Aesthetics 3. Safety 2.0 Design Constraints 1. Must be deemed safe by instructor to operate before electricity or high pressure air can be applied to device. Must always wear safety glasses when operating devices. 2. tubing lines must exit device to allow for connection to pneumatic stations. 3. Must be fully automatic in launching of table tennis balls during competition, no reloading by hand. 4. Must hold at least 6 table tennis balls 5. May use existing components from devices so long as that device was not a table tennis machine and your device remains aesthetically pleasing. 6. Device must incorporate pneumatic power. Use of electrical power is optional. 7. Your team is limited to a total budget of $85 for all purchased components and Learning Factory charges (for rapid prototyping or waterjet services). An online form will be made available to order parts and they will be purchased on your behalf from the following vendors: a. McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com) b. Jameco (http://www.jameco.com) Items such as meters, nuts and bolts, washers, switches, wires, fittings etc. will be available at no cost from the MNE Instrument Room in 23 Reber. Some materials (sheet metal, plastic) may be available at the Learning Factory. You will not be reimbursed for any purchases with your own money you buy it, you own it.

3.0 Power Stations To power and control your device there will be two power stations that will be shared for testing amongst the groups in room 314 Hammond. The power station includes: Agilent DC power supply 0-8V up to 3A or 0-15V up to 2amp Pneumatic valve station powered by an Arduinio micro controller o Can control the actuation of pneumatic air to two different lines o Can control timing of valve (time open, time closed) o Cannot fire air into two different lines at same time

4.0 Evaluation Criteria 25% Performance and Aesthectics (Winner of competition is guaranteed an A for this 25%) a) Performance in competition b) Quality of construction (no tape, no sharp edges, professional looking, etc.) c) Level of safety 5% Prototypes - alpha and beta prototypes, delivered on time and working 15% Written Proposal 20% Detailed Design Report 20% Final Report 10% Weekly progress reports 5% Poster and final presentation 5.0 Two Part Competition The competition will be performed in two parts performed on the field of competition shown on page 3. The goals used are shown on page 4. The competition winner will be the team with the highest combined Part 1 and Part 2 scores. Scoring is detailed on Page 6. Part 1 1. Student teams will be given 7 minutes to set up and fine tune their device. Device must be placed within the Setup Zone. Cannot hang over the edge of the table or over the 2 line. 2. Students start their machine that will propel 6 table tennis balls at Goal 1. 3. Part 1 score will be tabulated by summing the accuracy and precision points together as discussed in the scoring section. Part 2 1. Student teams will be given 7 minutes to set up and fine tune their device. Device must be placed within the Setup Zone. Cannot hang over the edge of the table or over the 2 line. 2. Students start their machine that will shoot 3 table tennis balls at Goal 1 and 3 table tennis balls at Goal 2 (are allowed to shoot balls in any order). 3. Part 2 score will be tabulated by multiplying the accuracy points by 2 as discussed in the scoring section given that at least both goals are hit.

Field of Competition Part 1

2

Setup Zone (Must place device within)

6 high net Goal 1 5

2.5

12

Field of Competition Part 2

Setup Zone (Must place device within) Goal 1 6 high net 5

Goal 2

12

Goal
Goal Goal 4 18 1.42 25o Table top

6.0 Manufacturing You must construct alpha (functional) and beta (demonstration) prototypes. At least one component of the beta product must be a produced on the Dimension1200 rapid prototyping (RP) machine, or on the OMAX Waterjet cutter in the Learning Factory. You are allowed a maximum of 3 cubic inches of total material (sum of model and support material) on the RP machine. This is the total amount allowed for your group for the entire semester. The minimum thickness for any RP part feature is 2 mm (.080), otherwise it may break! You can use the Catalyst software (on the Learning Factory computers) to estimate material usage and to check if the file is valid. All RP requests will be processed on a first-come first-serve basis. There will be large number of parts in the queue, so do not expect overnight service. A typical turnaround time is 2-4 days. To enter a job, you must generate a .stl file from Solidworks which contains your part geometry. All RP job requests must be submitted not later than November 26. Submit your RP files at the Learning Factory (in .stl file format only) on a CD or memory stick. Name your files using the convention: TeamID_psuid_filename.stl (where: teamID = 5A, 5B, etc. ; psuid = email id of team leader or contact person ). You may cut 2-D planar parts on the Omax Waterjet cutter in the Learning Factory. The waterjet is best suited for metal or Polycarbonate. The recommended file format is .dxf. Your team is allowed a maximum of 4 minutes total cutting time. Common thicknesses of Polycarbonate and aluminum are available for your use. Check at the Learning Factory for available sizes and materials. All other parts may be made on the manual machine tools in the Learning Factory. You are encouraged to consult with the staff of the Learning Factory for advice on how to build parts. Manufacturing Costs: Rapid Prototyping: $8/cubic inch of total material used (support and model), 3 cubic inch limit Waterjet: $4/minute of cutting time, limit of 4 minutes per team

7.0 Keys to success Creating a device capable of precise and repeatable motions to propel a table tennis ball is challenging. Some helpful tips to creating a successful design: 1. Make it sturdy. Repeatable motion will not come from something that is halfway falling apart. 2. Allow for easy adjustments to fine tune ball placement. 7 min to tune in device before competition is not much time. 3. When narrowing down designs ask yourself What can cause ball misplacement from one shot to another. 4. Pneumatic valves cannot instantaneously deliver a finite burst of air even though you can type that into a program. The pneumatic valves we are using are solenoid powered and take around 20ms to open completely. 5. Online designs are a useful place to get ideas started; however, the internet is not the source of all knowledge and devices you find were not optimized to succeed in this unique competition.

Scoring
The highest possible Part 1 score is 800, the highest possible part 2 score is 1200; therefore, the highest total score possible is 2000. Total Score= Part 1 Score + Part 2 Score Accuracy Points + Precision Points= Part 1 Score Multiplier *(Accuracy Points) = Part 2 Score
Accuracy Points o Center shot 1 is 100 points o Between the 4 and 8 ring is 50 points o Between 8 and 12 ring is 20 points o If it hits outside 12 ring it is 5 points Accuracy points = o Line hit counts as being in the inner zone 100+50+50+50+20+5 = 275 5 20 50 100

Precision Points o Precision points will be scored as shown below. All non-center shots count as being in the precision circle 3 circle of accuracy: 200 points 4 circle of accuracy: 150 points 5 circle of accuracy: 100 points 6 circle of accuracy: 50 points o Floor shot will result in 0 precion points 100 Within 6circle therefore 50 precision points are awarded

Mutiplier = 2 if both targets are hit at least once, otherwise = 0