Patent ID: 6443140
Filing Date: 2002-09-03
Classification: A63B

Abstract:
An object projection machine, having a front vertical plane, that projects an object, through two counter-rotating flywheels from a release point coincident with the front vertical plane, to a target position with a specified initial trajectory, a specified initial velocity, and a specified initial rotation rate, the object projection machine comprising:a main frame; a flywheel housing dynamically mounted within the main frame containing the two flywheels and electrical servomotors that impart rotational motion to the two flywheels; a first internal frame to which the flywheel housing is mounted that can be rotated, by an electrical servomotor, in a vertical plane perpendicular to the front vertical plane to select an elevation component of the initial trajectory and that an be rotated, by an electrical servomotor, in a horizontal plane perpendicular to the front vertical plane to select a windage component of the initial trajectory; a second internal frame to which the first internal frame is mounted that can be moved vertically and horizontally with respect to the front vertical plane by two electrical servomotors in order to position the release point at a selected point on the vertical front plane; and an object feeder that feeds the object along a projection axis, coincident with the initial trajectory, between the upper and lower flywheels so that, when the flywheels are counter rotating in the direction of the projection axis, the object is gripped by the two counter-rotating flywheels and projected along the projection axis through the front vertical plane of the object projection machine with an initial velocity determined by the rate of rotation of the upper and lower flywheels, with an initial rotational spin coplanar with the plane bisecting the upper and lower flywheels determined by the difference in rotation rates between the upper and lower flywheels, and with an initial trajectory coincident with the projection axis.