Offseason Golf Robot

[sarahg2543]

Hello Chief Delphi members!
Our team is currently working on a golf robot that is suppost to imitate the motion of a golfer, so we basically have a base with a tower that will have a leaned arm that will be chain driven to rotate 360 deg. We are trying to figure out what other mechanisms would work more efficiently to do what we want to accomplish. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated .

[Owen Makin]

A belt will create less of a rattle.

[Kevin Sevcik]

If you're trying to emulate a normal golf swing, I'd go with something similar to an Arm Style Pitching Machine. An over-center mechanism that slowly winds up, then rapidly swings forward. Or possibly just a simple catapult style system where you attach the club to a torsion spring, slowly pull it back, then quickly release it. Really, any sort of system where the club travels quickly for a short distance, then has to be slowly pulled back and wound up for the next shot. Otherwise, you're going to have a golf club swinging at ludicrous speed constantly in order to get any kind of distance out of the machine. Who on your team is going to be brave enough to tee up the golf ball in front of a golf club swinging at 60 RPM?

[sarahg2543]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

If you're trying to emulate a normal golf swing, I'd go with something similar to an Arm Style Pitching Machine. An over-center mechanism that slowly winds up, then rapidly swings forward. Or possibly just a simple catapult style system where you attach the club to a torsion spring, slowly pull it back, then quickly release it. Really, any sort of system where the club travels quickly for a short distance, then has to be slowly pulled back and wound up for the next shot. Otherwise, you're going to have a golf club swinging at ludicrous speed constantly in order to get any kind of distance out of the machine. Who on your team is going to be brave enough to tee up the golf ball in front of a golf club swinging at 60 RPM?

Haha we actually had three people hit their heads with the arm at separate times; luckily, no severe damage was made . Thanks for your suggestion, we will try it out.

[NXTGeek]

My team and I made a golf putting robot for an outreach/fundraising event at our local golf course:

[sarahg2543]

Originally Posted by NXTGeek

My team and I made a golf putting robot for an outreach/fundraising event at our local golf course:

Can you provide any more info? For example, how far did the ball go on average or what size piston? That's a very nice looking robot

[Richard Wallace]

Look here. Iron Byron swings a club better than most PGA professionals.

[Peyton Yeung]

Andymark made one last year

[sarahg2543]

Thank you for everyone's replies. We have taken each design in consideration and will be testing them soon. Please continue posting in this thread as it may help other teams, as I know there are others besides Team 2543 that are building an offseason golf robot