Paratrooper Assault Cannon

Members: Jason, John and Patrick

Prototype 1 - The Shmock-Up

Our team's shmock up is a paratrooper assault cannon. The idea is for the cam being held by Jason to compress and release the spring. The spring has a platform followed by a another piece of wood that is fixed to the launch tube. Strings are ran through the platform and come down through the other piece of wood and are then hooked onto a nail on the link on the cam. A second operation that the camp will perform is to pull back the loading cartridge that is on top of the PVC pipe. There will be a hole drilled in the pipe directly above the platform. The loading cartridge will have a track that it will slide on. As the spring is released and the object is launched the cam will crank back the cartridge dropping another object into the pipe. The loading cartridge will be filled with paratroopers and also something similar to a Nerf ball. The paratrooper will be launched and then float down by their parachute while the operator fires the Nerf balls at the paratrooper.

Prototype 2 - The Interim Prototype

The team has successfully assembled an iteration for the paratrooper assault cannon. The assembly consists of two main sections. The white tube is the launch section and the wooden attachments behind it are the 'crank' section. Inside the tube is a dowel rod with two springs of the same diameter wrapped around it. At the end of this dowel rod is the platform which the paratrooper or assault missile are launched from. The hole in the surface of the tube is the loading portal where paratroopers and assault missiles will drop into the launch platform from the sliding loader. The crank section consists of a cam mechanism which allows for rapid fire action. As the cam rotates it comes in and out of contact with the trigger lever. The trigger lever is attached to the dowel by nylon rope. As the lever is pulled back it compresses the spring, upon the lever's release the spring is released.

The challenges encountered have revolved around getting a sufficient launch distance from the cam mechanisms. In light of this, the cam mechanism will be deleted from the final design. The nylon rope attachment was deforming during repeated use and weakening the compression distance of the springs. It was discovered using a direct pull on the dowel rod, a sufficient launch could be achieved. The redesign for the final iteration will included using the dowel rod as the direct launching mechanism and the completion of a loader mechanism. The loader slide action will be directly coupled into the launch action by a rigid link and ratchet action.

Prototype 3 - The Final Prototype

Watch the video of this project