Update

Today we worked on designing the design of the project.  We brainstormed and made a few sketches on paper.  We kept the design small to minimize the catapult arm weight and to reduce size in general.  We also decided against making the catapult "turnable" or adjustable.  The design would have called for attaching a servo to the bottom of the project and it was decided that it would be difficult to attach the servo without it being weak at the attachment point.  The sketches were then transformed into Solidworks files.  The decision was also made to use the catapult arm as the 3D Printed piece since it needs to be light, strong and exact in order to work properly and all three of these properties are met by using plastic.  We also decided today that the servo will not be fast enough to "throw" objects, therefore we will need to use a DC motor and a motor shield.  The design also includes 3 leds and a button which will be pressed when ready to fire.  The leds will "count off", lighting up the first, second and third ones in order before it fires.

Today we took a look at planning some pieces of the catapult and how it will fit together.  We decided to use the actual shooting arm as the 3D printed piece and glue that directly to the motor.  The rest of the assembly will most likely be constructed using cardboard and poster board.

Hello World

We are Team 15.  On the left is Jun, and on the right is Adrian Federico.  We are both students at UMass Lowell working on an arduino based team project.  We will use this blog to post updates on our project and display our work for others to learn from and share.  We landed on the idea of building a catapult using the arduino as the controller.  The catapult will be controlled most likely using a button which will turn on a servo or motor which will turn the lever arm.  Depending on difficulty the catapult can be fitted to a stand with a second servo allowing the catapult to be aimed remotely.

These are a couple of videos that helped to inspire our ideas.