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Development of a Soccer Ball Launching Device

Chapter · January 2018

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-8788-2_53

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 Development of a Soccer Ball Launching Device

Mohd Hasnun Arif Hassan[0000-0002-6681-1784], Zahari Taha,

Mohd Ali Hanafiah Shaharuddin and Lim Kok Wee

Innovative Manufacturing, Mechatronics and Sports Lab (iMAMS),

Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
26600 Pekan, Pahang, MALAYSIA
mhasnun@ump.edu.my

Abstract. Soccer players are allowed to use their heads to direct the ball to the
teammates during the game. Studies have shown that purposeful heading of the
ball in soccer might cause long-term traumatic brain injury. In order to analyze
the impact of soccer heading on the brain in the laboratory, a device that can
launch the ball at constant speed is required. This project aims to develop a de-
vice, which can launch the ball towards a target such as an instrumented dummy
headform at desired speeds. Two counter-rotating wheels that are rotated by two
AC motors were used as the launching mechanism. The use of AC motors is
economical, but their speeds cannot be easily controlled. Thus, a release mecha-
nism that automates the switching of the motor as well as feeding the ball was
developed. Testing shows that the device is capable of launching the ball up to a
maximum speed of 18 m/s. This corresponds to the reported maximum heading
speed in soccer. The use of the release mechanism allows the ball speed to be
varied. A soccer ball launching device was successfully developed. The device
is not only economical, but also capable of launching the ball at desired speeds.

Keywords: Soccer Ball Launcher, Ball Shooter.

1 Introduction

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world with an active involvement of more than
265 million people worldwide. The uniqueness of this game is that it permits the pur-
poseful use of the head in directing the ball to the teammates or even scoring goals.
This manoeuvre is termed ‘heading’. A soccer player could be subjected to six to seven
occasions of heading in a game [1] with an estimation of approximately 800 headings
a year [2]. This purposeful use of the head in soccer has raised concerns as to whether
it could lead to brain trauma injury.
Many studies have linked purposeful heading in soccer to brain trauma injury, sim-
ilar to that found in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Both amateur and professional
soccer players were evaluated in the past decades. This was done through a series of
neuropsychological tests [3–7], as well as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tech-
nique [8–10]. These studies demonstrated that heading in soccer might be harmful to
the brain. Although the cognitive impairment might also be caused by other head impact
2

cases such as head-to-head or head-to-elbow impacts, the detrimental effects of head-

to-ball impact cannot be simply ruled out. A single heading might not be dangerous,
but the cumulative effects of the repeated blows are the main concerns.
To study the impact of soccer heading on the brain, experimental studies of soccer
heading have been conducted. The experiments were performed on human subjects
[11–15] and head dummy such as the Hybrid III crash test dummy [14, 16, 17]. These
experiments attempted to measure the linear and angular head accelerations induced by
the soccer heading manoeuvre. Most of the experiments focused on the frontal heading,
i.e. the ball impacts the forehead of the subjects.
To conduct the dynamic impact tests on the soccer ball and the soccer heading ex-
periment, a device capable of launching a soccer ball at different speeds is required.
Due to the high cost of such device and its unavailability in Malaysia during the time
this project was conducted, the aim of this work is to develop a cost-effective soccer
ball launching device that can propel a soccer ball at various speeds for the purpose of
conducting soccer heading experiment. The subsequent sections describe the develop-
ment of the device and its testing.

2 Method

2.1 Theoretical Calculation

The aim is to develop an economical device that is capable of consistently launching a

soccer ball up to a maximum velocity of 18 m/s. The chosen speed is slightly larger
than the typical maximum speed of soccer heading of 18 m/s reported in high school
soccer games [18]. The launch velocity of the ball is determined using the velocity
equation of the uniform circular motion, as follows:

𝑣 = 𝜔𝑟% (1)

where 𝑣 is the ball's launch velocity, 𝑟% is the radius of the wheel and 𝜔 is the angular
velocity of the wheel.

Fig. 1. Force exerted on the wheel during the soccer ball launching.
 3

Two AC motors were obtained, having a power of 150 W, 1.15 Nm torque and a
speed of 1245.56 rpm. The reason behind using the AC motor instead of DC is the fact
that it is more economical. The wheel has a radius of 173.5 mm and weighs 1.464 kg.
From Equation (1), the theoretical maximum launch speed is 22.62 m/s; this fulfils the
requirement of the device.
The launching is achieved through the counter-rotation of the wheels and the com-
pression of the ball. This results in a force being exerted on each wheel; the direction
of the forces points towards the axis of rotation as shown in Fig. 1. The force exerted
on each wheel is the summation of the centripetal force and the force exerted by the
deformed soccer ball:

𝐹 = 𝐹( + 𝐹* (2)

𝐹 = 𝑚% 𝑟% 𝜔 , + 𝑘* 𝑥* (3)

where 𝐹( is the centripetal force, 𝐹* is the force exerted by the deformed soccer ball,
𝑚% is the mass of the wheel, 𝑘* is the ball's stiffness and 𝑥* is the maximum defor-
mation of the ball. The stiffness, 𝑘* was taken as 36,833 N/m as reported by a previous
study [19]; the ball is assumed to undergo a 15% maximum deformation. The maximum
force exerted on each wheel, calculated using Equation (2) and (3) is then equivalent to
4,926 N.

2.2 Fabrication of the Device

To prevent structural failures due to the aforementioned forces, a ball bearing was in-
corporated in the design, installed at each wheel. A deep grove ball bearing (model
61907, SKF) was chosen. This ball bearing has a dynamic load rating of 9.56 kN and a
static load rating of 6.8 kN. These are larger than the force calculated previously using
the Equation (2) and (3); this ball bearing is suitable in this case. The bearing is placed
at the centre of mass of a 15 mm-thick aluminium bar. Each end of the bar is fixed to
an aluminium profile as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Proposed design of the soccer ball launching device.

4

A shaft was manufactured according to the diameter of the opening at the centre of
the wheel. The shaft has 2 parts; upper and lower. The upper part clamps the ball bear-
ing to the wheel, preventing it from sliding or moving. The lower part is attached to the
motor shaft using an M2.5 screw. Fig. 3 depicts the shaft.

Fig. 3. Cross-section of the shaft.

The device employs a gravity-feed mechanism. The ball is placed on a pair of angled
aluminium profile. A 3-mm thick aluminium sheet attached to a servo motor holds the
ball from rolling down. The drawback of using AC motor is the difficulty to control its
speed, making the device incapable of launching the ball at various speeds. This prob-
lem was overcome by switching off the motor and varying the delay time of which the
ball is fed to the device. This is achieved by means of a solid-state relay, a servo motor
and a micro-controller (Arduino Uno, Arduino, Italy).

Fig. 4. Wiring diagram of the soccer ball launching device.

 5

The micro-controller board was programmed to switch on the AC motor, switch it

off and release the ball by turning the servo motor. Fig. 4 shows the wiring of the elec-
tronics parts to the Arduino Uno micro-controller board. A Bluetooth module was used
to allow for the wireless operation of the device. An android-based device paired with
the aforementioned Bluetooth module was used to operate the device. Fig. 5 shows the
developed soccer ball launching device.

Fig. 5. The developed soccer ball launching device.

3 Results and Discussion

The device was successfully developed. But it needs to be tested to ensure the require-
ments set are fulfilled. An experiment was conducted to measure the velocity of the
propelled ball. A high-speed camera (model SV643C, Epix Inc.) was used to capture
the motion of the soccer ball propelled by the device. The feeding delay was set to 0 s,
5 s and 10 s.

Fig. 6. Propelled ball velocity against launch delay.

6

The ball was launched for at least three times for each delay. The recorded high-speed
videos were analysed using the XCAP software (version 3.7, EPIX, Inc.) and the launch
velocity was measured.
Fig. 6 shows the propelled ball speed plotted against the launch delay. It is apparent
that when launched at full speed without delay, the ball was ejected at almost 18 m/s as
per requirement. The variation of ball speed was achieved through varying the launch
delay. A launch delay of 5 s provides a ball speed of about 12.5 m/s, meanwhile a launch
delay of 10 s produced a ball speed of about 8 m/s.

4 Conclusion

A soccer ball launching device was successfully developed. It utilizes two counter-ro-
tating wheels mechanism. Two identical AC motors were used to drive both wheels in
different directions. The variation of launching speed was achieved through delaying
the time at which the ball is fed to the device due to the limitation of the AC motor.
This method has been proven to work in our experimental testing. The maximum pro-
pelled ball speed achieved is 18 m/s as per requirement. This shows that the motor used
and the design itself is adequate to fulfil the requirements. The fabricated device only
cost around MYR 500, which is more economical than the commercial device which
cost around MYR 10,000.

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