Jason Chen's Capstone

For my senior year capstone, I decided to create a frisbee launcher in hopes of benefiting the Ultimate Frisbee community. The purpose of this was to combine two of my favorite hobbies, Ultimate Frisbee and Engineering, incorporating it into something special. My initial thought when coming up with this idea was having some type of machine that could be your throwing partner for frisbee. Not everyone knows how to throw a frisbee efficiently right off the bat, so I wanted to make a machine that they can operate, all they have to do is insert a disc. The physics of frisbee is really interesting and there is a technique to throwing it. When going into building, I had to follow the basic engineering process which includes many different designs and ideas of how I could launch a disc. Once I decided which method would be best, I had to learn how to mount a wheel onto a cim motor. In the progress in learning how to do this I came by many difficulties because there were all kind wheels and there is a certain way to mount a wheel. Once I was finally able to have a running motor with a wheel on it, then came the structure. While making the structure, I had to run many tests and make many tweaks. After that, I was able to launch a frisbee a decent distance. In a frisbee term, it would be call a passing distance making my capstone to be a success.
IMG_1173
IMG_1173

"Automatic Frisbee Launcher." Hackaday.io. Accessed January 24, 2019. https://hackaday.io/project/7850-automatic-frisbee-launcher.

A few years ago there was a robotics competition that requires launching a frisbee. This site shows one of the designs a team approach in order to make a robot that can shoot a frisbee.


Eisenhood, Charlie. "This Homemade Frisbee Launcher Is Amazing | Livewire." Ultiworld. Accessed January 24, 2019. https://ultiworld.com/livewire/this-homemade-frisbee-launcher-is-amazing/.

Ultiworld is like a news site that preview a lot of ultimate frisbee stuff. On this site ultiworld shares an homemade frisbee launcher made by someone along with a video of how this person created this launcher.


"Finally Disc Golf with This New Launcher." New Mobility. January 14, 2017. Accessed January 24, 2019. http://www.newmobility.com/2013/05/finally-disc-golf-with-this-new-launcher/.

Along with ultimate frisbee there is another sport that is call disc golf. It’s similar to gift where you have to throw the frisbee into a bucket of some sort to score. This site shows a invention someone created that allows someone to throw a frisbee using this support stick.


Instructables, and Tecn. "Ultimate Frisbee Launcher." Instructables.com. October 10, 2017. Accessed January 24, 2019. https://www.instructables.com/id/Ultimate-Frisbee-Launcher/.

Instructables has been around for a pretty long time and is known to many engineers. This site introduces all kind of creations and design made by people and shows it to the world. On this site a group of teens design and creates a Frisbee launcher with a in-depth guide.


Ultimate Football. Accessed January 24, 2019. http://web.wellington.org/miller/How the Frisbee Flies.htm.

The laws of physics behind an frisbee is a important aspects to this project because I will be attempting to launch one. This site goes into the laws and physics behind a frisbee allowing me to have a better understanding of how a frisbee flies in motion.


"Ultimate Frisbee Top 10 Lists." Ultimate Frisbee: Rules, History, Throws, Terms | Disc Ace. Accessed January 24, 2019. https://www.discace.com/ultimate-frisbee/ultimate-frisbee-throws.

Ultimate frisbee has all kind of different cool throwing techniques. This site goes into the top 10 throws people like to do when they throw a frisbee. This gives me ideas of how I can simulate throwing a frisbee.


"USA Ultimate." About Spirit of the Game. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.usaultimate.org/about/ultimate/.

USA Ultimate is another huge organization that runs frisbee. They run many tournaments in all kind of levels. This site goes into the idea of how ultimate frisbee is fun and the history behind it. It speaks a lot about the community and how it’s great.


Pludodog. "Frisbee Launcher." YouTube. April 26, 2008. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KVK8svZzbI.

This is a video of a cool frisbee launcher made by someone. The machine looks really interesting and has cool things like how the machine can adjust its height. Otherwise there is a lot of power in this machine allowing the frisbee to fly in a smooth motion.


"Vikings Robotics Team 2984." Vikings Robotics - FRC Team 2984. Accessed January 24, 2019. http://ljrobotics.org/games/ultimate-ascent-2013/.

This is another robot that was created by the Vikings Robotics team 2984. This shows a video of a mock battle with the frisbee robots which can give me some cool ideas.


World Flying Disc Federation. Accessed January 25, 2019. http://www.wfdf.org/history-stats/history-of-ultimate.

This is one of the major federation that start ultimate frisbee during, it started in high school with a small group of people. It’s cool to see the background of how ultimate frisbee formed. It all started in a parking lot.


Comments