By: Derek K.
Year: 2023
School: Arnold O. Beckman High
Grade: 11
Science Teacher: Charles Beilin
Golf is gaining popularity during and post COVID, and practice ranges are often packed at peak hours.
Making golf practice at home more effective and efficient will be beneficial to tens of millions golfers of all ages. A portable gravity driven smart golf ball dispenser plays an important role in this mission.
Congestion scenarios in golf ball flow driven by gravity were studied in this project. A mechanism for
congestion-free ball flow was designed and tested, and a structure that is comprised of ball container, ball regulator and ball release structure was built based upon this mechanism. A control system was
implemented with microcontrollers and sensors to detect ball strikes, control ball release, and display helpful information. A smart phone APP was developed to communicate with the system.
The dispenser is energy efficient, as six AA batteries power the control system and can support the release of an estimated 7000 balls in a battery lifespan. Ball strikes trigger ball releases automatically. It was tested against many types of balls, and there was no ball congestion. It tracks and displays the number of strikes and balls left in the dispenser.
My proposed solution was validated through testing. The dispenser works as designed and can be easily set up for practice at home and improve practice efficiency.