Best Way to Shoot the Balls??

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Im trying to think of an effective way to rifle the ball in a mechanism similar to the softball laucher.
there are also many hybrid ideas to the softball laucher, including tubes with belts in them, multi-ball lauchers, "gatling guns" etc etc etc

I was thinking about rifling also. The main problem with putting groves in the barrel is that it would either cut up the ball or simply slow it down too much. I was thinking about adding a set of rotational wheels. If there's a set of wheels mounted perpendicular to the "launching" wheels, it could spin the ball. You'd probably have to use a set of omniwheels though. You'd also have to make sure that the barrel is relatively low-friction.

For a little bit today, we were considering a gatling gun style device. Had it not been discounted for impracticality, it would have been pretty cool.