Go Fetch

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

05SEP: Added photos of a model printed on a Makerbot Rep 2 at 50% scale. The sample printed without support material (left) had issues at the top of the circle (NOTE: The ball is from a children's toy and was not 3D printed).
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This model started out as a way to launch ping pong balls for my previous "Drone Pong" entry, but a much more practical application came to mind - a training tool for both dog and owner.

Watching people play "fetch" with their dogs in the park, there are some owners that can easily throw the ball, others that use a special throwing handle that gives them mechanical advantage, and then there are those that are unable to throw due to age, injury or disability.

The concept is to use drones to carry the ball out a certain distance, drop it, and allow the dog to retrieve it. The dog gets exercise, dog and owner interact more, and the daily "mental exercise" of maneuvering a drone may help slow the onset of Alzheimer's for some owners.

A fun application of this accessory would be a drone obstacle course where racers must navigate a course as fast as possible without losing the ball ("egg-on-a-spoon" race using drones).

The basic frame (BLUE) was designed to be 3D-printed without rafts or supports. It serves as both a landing pod and as a tennis ball carrier. Adapter rings (GREEN) can be added to make the opening smaller, making it more difficult to keep the ball from falling out when maneuvering the drone.

This design is essentially a blend of my previous "Landing Pods", R. Hoyt's "Single Part Drop Tank", and G. Barroso's "Bottles Delivering" entries. For this therapeutic application I wanted to create the simplest design that could still meet the 3D-print only requirement. For a drone with a larger baseplate, the ball holder could simply be attached to the frame with traditional standoffs.

Thanks to J. Johnson for the use of his https://grabcad.com/library/tennis-ball--9 model.