JP3217166U - Tennis practice device integrating ball launcher and recovery machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A tennis practice device including a ball launcher and a ball collecting machine that automatically collects a ball returned by a player is provided. A ball launcher 2 having a ball container 1 for holding a plurality of balls, automatically supplying the balls one by one from the container 1 and firing the balls under set conditions, and a lower part thereof. The rotating roller 5 was used to collect the ball and automatically lift it up to the ball container 1 of the upper ball launcher 2, and a motor and a conversion gear for rotating the roller 5 were stored inside the roller 5. [Selection] Figure 1

Description

      The present invention relates to a ball launcher that can practice strokes, volleys, smashes, and the like using a tennis court even by one person, and a tennis practice device that automatically collects a ball returned by a player.

Looking at changes in the tennis population, the proportion of middle-aged and older people aged 40 and over is increasing year by year.
Moreover, when the utilization rate of the tennis court was examined, it was found that the usage rate of Weekday was as low as 10-20%. The reason is that tennis cannot be practiced on the court without an opponent. If you can practice alone, the use rate of Weekday coats will rise, leading to health promotion for middle-aged and older people. In order to hit the ball alone on the court, a machine that automatically hits the ball is required. For this, devices for automatically launching a ball are already on the market. (For example, a cube ball machine, etc.) This ball launcher is equipped with a ball container that holds about 50 to 100 balls, a mechanism that feeds the balls one by one, and a launcher that throws them between two rollers. Has been. This roller can be placed vertically to spin or slice the ball. Some devices allow more practical practice. By installing this device near the opponent's base line on the court and pressing a switch manually or with a remote controller, balls are fired one by one. You can strike the ball against the opponent's court and practice strokes, volley, and smash. After hitting, the ball hits the fence or enclosure on the outside of the court and is scattered in the vicinity. When you have finished hitting all the balls, you can pick up the balls scattered by the fence one by one using your hand or racket and place them in a basket or box, and then transfer the collected balls to the ball launcher's container. Must.

Actual application 2008-5323

Utility Model Sho 61-1333066

The actual application 2008-5323 is a device that collects a ball by a ball push-up plate that rotates in conjunction with the rotation of the wheel. In this case, after collecting the ball, the player lifts it up to the ball collecting machine above the ball launcher. There is a need. Especially for elderly people, there is a concern that this transfer will lead to lower back injury. Therefore, it is desirable to perform this transfer operation automatically. Although a mechanism for automatically transferring from a ball collecting machine to a ball launcher can be produced, there is a problem that the structure is complicated and it takes a lot of time to align the devices.

The present invention integrates a device that automatically launches a ball and a device that automatically collects a ball, and performs a ball bending down by lifting the ball to a ball container above the ball launching device with a high-speed rotating roller or belt conveyor. It eliminates picking up and transferring work.
The recovery method uses a roller that rotates at a high speed (for example, a roller with a diameter of 14 cm and around 1000 rpm). The ball is sandwiched between the roller and the ground, and the ball is loaded to give the initial speed and fly to a position higher than the ball container of the launcher. The ball can be collected and transferred at the same time. A more stable recovery can be achieved by attaching a slanted ball reflector to the top of the ball. The recovery rate can be further increased by winding a sponge or felt material with friction against the ball around the roller.

As a method of collecting the balls, it is possible to lift even if a belt conveyor or a conveyor with protrusions is used.
A method described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 1-126267 or a method of sandwiching a belt conveyor between two sheets may be used.

The device may be equipped with image recognition to find and collect the ball, but it will not save time. Even without using image recognition, the ball can be collected by sweeping while making a U-turn parallel to the line from the base line side. In this case, it is possible to move the coat width with a program, but it is surrounded by two laser lines by using two sets of laser light and a light receiving part as a method of specifying the collection range variably without changing the program. Can be specified by area. For example, by placing two laser light sources on the net side of the coat and placing a light receiving part on the opposite fence side, a collection range with two lines at both ends of the collection range can be formed like a laser sensor. When the ball recovery device cuts off the laser line, the radio circuit provided in the light receiving element skips the signal and the command to rotate the ball recovery device is executed. By rotating 180 degrees, the ball can be recovered by reciprocating between the laser lines. .
In order to disperse the light of the semiconductor laser as a light source, a parallel light using a lens is used. The optical axis of the laser beam is finely adjusted, and the initial setting is made with the light receiving element. The collection range can be freely changed without changing software by turning off the light by passing the ball collection device between the two points and turning it 180 degrees as a trigger. . For fine adjustment of the optical axis, it is preferable to provide a mechanism such as a goniometer, a rotary stage, or a microstage that can finely adjust the tilt angle and rotation angle on the light source side. In consideration of safety, the height of the light source is preferably as low as 30 cm because the probability of entering the human eye decreases. Since the output must be set to a safety standard of 1 mW or less, in order to increase the sensitivity, the sensitivity can be increased by increasing the peak power by using pulsed emission. You can also determine the counterclockwise rotation of the ball collector by changing the frequency on the right and left sides of the court.

By using communication such as tablet, remote control and Bluetooth, it is possible to change the condition and change the launch position from a remote location without going to the device one by one. This further increases practice efficiency.

If the motor or gear of the rotating roller is exposed to the outside, there is a risk of human hands being pinched or dirt due to dust. By providing internal teeth inside the rotating roller and storing the motor and speed conversion gear, it is possible to reduce the possibility of a hand being pinched or the gear dirty.

Effect 1

The present invention integrates a device that automatically fires a ball and a device that automatically collects the ball, so that when the player finishes hitting the ball, the device automatically collects the ball during the rest period such as hydration. You can return to the launch position and stand by. And you can do the next practice without picking up the ball. As a result, the practice content concentrates only on hitting the ball, so the practice efficiency can be greatly increased.

Effect 2

  By integrating the ball launching device and the ball collection device, it is not necessary to use a complicated transfer mechanism or align the two devices for collecting the collected balls, so that the collection time can be greatly shortened.

Effect 3

  The speed at which the ball is fired wirelessly from the tablet, the type of ball (spin ball and slice ball), the swing angle (neck swing mechanism), the launch angle (launch at a high angle when a lob is to be fired), the front, back, left and right of the device Since the movement can be performed freely, it is not necessary to move the apparatus by manually pushing the apparatus to change the ball launching apparatus. This allows you to intensively practice the ball from the forward cross (right-handed fore side) or intensively practice the angled ball from the reverse cross (right-handed backhand side). By starting / stopping with the remote control, you no longer have to go to the device or tablet. The remote control is small so you can keep it in your pocket.

Effect 4

The collection range can be automatically collected by adding the size of the court in the program, but in order to perform more efficient collection, it is possible to further reduce the time by specifying and collecting only the area where a lot of balls flew. In the present invention, the collection range can be determined using a combination of a light source such as a laser pointer and a light receiving element, so that it can be freely set without rewriting the program such as collecting the coat half or conversely collecting the coat 2 or 3 surfaces.

Effect 5

Since the motor and gear are housed in the rotating roller, the gear is not exposed to the outside, so it is also a noise and safety measure. It is also excellent in preventing dust adhesion.

Effect 6

In order to increase the effectiveness of the practice, it will be even more effective if you get a ball-by-ball advice like a tennis school.
There are commercially available tennis sensors that can be used as data to determine which position on the racket surface and how much the spin was. For example, if you use Sony's smart tennis sensor (SSE-TN1S 00), it will tell you how much you hit the sweet spot and the amount of spin for each ball. If this information is displayed from a speaker or display mounted on the main body of the device, feedback can be provided each time, and effective practice can be performed without a coach.

Effect 7

The ball launcher and the ball collection machine may be movable independently. In this case, it can be separated and used exclusively for the ball collecting machine. If you want to collect two balls on the court by setting the ball container in the place of the ball launcher, or if you want to shorten the break time, you can collect it while hitting the ball, so you can think about more various usage methods.

The block diagram of the whole apparatus is shown. Side view of ball collection roller Appearance and internal structure of collection roller (built-in motor and gear) The body lifter part (pantograph) is shown. Laser emitter and receiver for collection range specification Collection range designation system illustration Example using a belt conveyor

A structure in which the ball collection unit and ball launching unit are integrated. The rotating roller unit and the launched ball are directly put into the ball container, or something like an upper ceiling plate is attached and the ball is reflected on the plate to reflect the ball. The one that is surely placed in the container of the launcher. By using a ceiling plate, even if there is a variation in a new ball with no air or unevenness on the ground, it can be absorbed by increasing the rotation speed.

As a method of collecting the balls, it is possible to lift even if a belt conveyor or a conveyor with protrusions is used.

Using a tablet or remote control that can be operated remotely, it is possible to change conditions such as starting the device, changing the ball speed, ball type, launch angle, and ball launch position without having to go to the device.
Automatic operation and manual operation can be performed while sitting on a bench by using a tablet.

As a method of freely designating the ball collection range without changing the program, it is possible to designate a region surrounded by two laser lines by using two sets of laser light and a light receiving unit. For example, by placing two laser light sources on the net side of the coat and placing a light receiving part on the opposite fence side, a collection range with two lines at both ends of the collection range can be formed like a laser sensor. When the ball recovery device cuts off the laser line, the radio circuit provided in the light receiving element skips the signal and the command to rotate the ball recovery device is executed. By rotating 180 degrees, the ball can be recovered by reciprocating between the laser lines. .

  Tires will not move if the battery of the ball collector is exhausted. In the present invention, a pantograph is provided under the device so that the vehicle body can be lifted up and pushed by hand.

Personal practice

One person can practice on the tennis court when the use rate of the court is low (10-20%) such as during Weekday. It leads to improvement of the usage rate of tennis court.
When used at a tennis school, the collection time of the ball can be deleted, so the student can concentrate only on hitting the ball and the satisfaction of the lesson content will increase. Differentiate from other tennis schools.

1. Ball collector 2. 2. Ball launcher Tire 4. 4. Slope plate 5. Ball collection roller 6. Ball collection arm Ball reflector 8. Ball guide slope9. Motor 10. Conversion gear 11. Internal gear 12. Wiring holding tube 13. Pantograph for vehicle lift 14. Laser pointer 15. 15. Laser line marker for rough direction determination Optical stage adjustment microstage (rotation angle, tilt angle)
17. Laser beam (collimated light)
18. Stand 19. Light receiving element with built-in communication circuit 20. Laser light emitting device 21. Ball collection device 22. Coat fence 23. Belt conveyor 24. Slope 25. motor

Claims (3)

A ball launcher that has a ball container for holding a plurality of balls, automatically supplies the balls one by one from the container and launches the balls under the set conditions, and a ball using a rotating roller located below the ball launcher Tennis training device with a function to automatically collect and lift the ball to the ball container of the upper ball launcher A rotating roller according to claim 1, wherein a motor for rotating the roller and a conversion gear are housed inside the roller. In order to specify the ball collection range, a laser beam emitting device equipped with two pairs of optical axis adjustment functions and a box-shaped container that does not allow disturbance light to enter, and an aperture through which the laser beam passes are provided. [10] Tennis practice according to [Claim 1], wherein a collection range is specified using a light receiving device including a communication circuit that sends a signal to the tennis practice device according to [Claim 1] when the light receiving element and the laser beam are blocked in the interior. apparatus.