The SmartShooter

Third-year Mechatronics design project: conceive, build and demonstrate a full mechatronic system from scratch, as a team of four, inside a single semester. We chose a ping-pong ball launcher — simple on the surface, but it forced us to integrate actuation, sensing, motion control, PLC logic and a user interface into one working machine.

Led the team as project lead — splitting the work into mechanical, pneumatic, electrical and software streams and keeping the integration plan tight. The control architecture is a Siemens S7 PLC (programmed in TIA Portal) orchestrating pneumatic feeding and release, a motor-driven launching mechanism with PID-tuned motion control, and an HMI for operator control.

The PLC decomposes into clean states (idle, arming, aiming, launching, reset) with interlocks between pneumatics and motion so the hardware can't hurt itself or anyone near it.

Siemens S7 PLC programmed in Ladder / Structured Text via TIA Portal, driving pneumatic cylinders for ball feed and release and a motor-driven launcher whose velocity is closed-loop PID-controlled against a tuned setpoint. Discrete I/O for sensors and E-stops; analogue I/O for the motor loop. HMI screens for setup, jog, and automatic modes.

Tuning the PID was the bulk of the software effort — the launcher had to hit a repeatable exit velocity, which meant characterising the plant, tuning gains empirically, and adding safety limits on the setpoint so nothing could over-speed on a bad command.

Delivered a working, demonstrable machine at end-of-semester: reliable feed, repeatable launch, safe operator interface. The lasting takeaways were less about ping-pong balls and more about leading a small multi-disciplinary team through a real mechatronic integration — which is exactly what the later AGV work scaled up.