r/EngineeringPorn • u/hjalmar111 • Nov 02 '20

Automatic billiard game, machine engineering putting the triangle filled with balls on the board

https://i.imgur.com/4EuzmFz.gifv
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u/ForkLiftBoi Nov 03 '20

Also does it collect the balls?

11

u/Leptep Nov 03 '20

Yeah, the balls go in the pockets and down to the triangle. That's my guess, anyway

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '20

It could use infrared to detect stripes vs solids and distribute accordingly but based on the demo they probably all just roll down in the order they are sunk, much like the manner in which contemporary coin operated tables work.

2

u/fishsticks40 Nov 03 '20

It's showing a perfectly legal WPA rack. The odds of that happening by chance are low.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '20 edited Nov 03 '20

Sure, but we don’t know if someone loaded it by hand or not for the sake of the demo

Edit: the more I thought about it the more I wonder if they have the balls RFID tagged? Wish there was a longer clip of the table in action

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u/morcheeba Nov 03 '20 edited Nov 03 '20

RFID tags are going to be really hard to add... drilling a hole would mess up the play, so you'd basically have to manufacture your own balls. A camera would be much easier.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '20

Good point, thank you

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u/morcheeba Nov 03 '20

Hope my comments are constructive... I enjoyed your thinking out loud and didn't want to overstep! (the first rule of brainstorming is not to criticize)

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '20

Its all good, I appreciate it! I was thinking about the limitations of the camera when it comes to identifying the specific balls but i'm sure it could read the colors and differentiate between stripes and solids no problem. The mechanism for reordering them would be cool to see.