This week, Bing crushed our Design Review presentation. After class, Hyong, our advisor, pointed out a critical component to our game, one which we identified ourself to be make or beak: the batting experience.
We aren’t trying to make this a baseball simulator, but we still feel we can achieve an intuitive, skill-based batting experience, similar to how other arcade baseball games do. Pitch delivery will be predictable, with just enough variability in speed and movement to make it difficult. Bat swing to flapper actuation will be accurate and low latency. Scoring outcomes will depend on how well-timed swings are.
A few risks that we discussed this week were:
- Pitch speed: Our current pitch system will be powered by belt-driven linear actuators that are powered by NEMA17 motors. By increasing our motor driver strength and operating at the upper end of current ratings, we believe we will get RPM from the motors and thus sufficient pitch speed. If not, we have discussed a machine similar to the “JUGGS machine” that is used to sling American footballs, using 2 DC motors and wheels. Another alternative would be to rely purely on gravity for the ball to fall fast, and increase the game board slope.
- Ball return: After a ball falls into a scoring pocket, it needs to be routed back to the “Pitcher’s Mound”. This is a challenge, since we want the ball to fall through the playing surface so that it can be detected by break-beam sensors, so it will need to climb back to the surface plane while avoiding under table obstructions like the Gantry. We discussed a few different methods to resolve this, including chute like paths for the ball to fall through the surface, then come back out down below, relying on the fact that the game board will be angled towards the batter. Once the ball pops back on to the surface below, the gantry can drag the ball back to the mound. An alternative would be to have shallowed grooves rather than fall-through pockets, again taking advantage of gravity and geometry to make a convenient pickup spot for the ball. If all fails, we can have a Air Hockey style puck drop-in and return, where the pitched needs to place the ball on the mound after it is returned to them below in a slot.
Little has changed with our design, as we are still waiting to receive our first round of components. Our schedule has changed slightly, as the gantry equipment won’t come in until after Spring Break. Thus, Aiden will shift his focus to the Coupling Mechanism and Game Board for now. The schedule here reflects that: gantt_chart_2_21
We look forward to beginning the development of some of our subsystems and finalizing the designs for others.