Skip to main content

Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun tracks targets and avoids friendly fire

Anyone who plays video games will know that few things protect an area like a well-placed sentry gun. In the real world, though, even a person's bedroom or office could use a little protection sometimes, which is why one designer has built the Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun. Using a custom program and some servos, the sentry can automatically locate targets and unleash a stream of foam darts at over seven times the usual speed, while keeping its owner out of the crosshairs.Britt Liv Ulrike Michelsen, a chemical and biological engineering student from Germany, designed and constructed the sentry using mostly basic electronics and some plywood. This isn't the first time she's modified a Nerf gun, but building this robotic turret is arguably her most ambitious project to date.
Luckily, the Nerf Vulcan already operates using an electric motor, so controlling the actual firing mechanism through a computer was just a matter of connecting it directly to an Arduino Uno and a laptop. From there, Michelsen crafted a stand from plywood and mounted the gun onto a couple of servos, which also control its turning and tilting through the Arduino.
While she was at it, she swapped out the Vulcan's usual 2 kg (4.4 lb) firing spring for a 5 kg (11 lb) one, upping the dart's velocity from 12 m/s (39 ft/s) to 90 m/s (295 ft/s). Aside from giving the darts some extra punch, the increased speed also improved the gun's accuracy. She also added a higher-voltage battery pack to raise the firing rate.
Then it was just a matter of downloading and running an open-source program created by Bob Rudolph of Project Sentry Gun and affixing a webcam to the front of the stand. The webcam scans the area, while the program automatically locks onto movement, aims the gun, and begins firing.
As a added feature though, the gun can be programmed to cease fire when it registers a par...
As a added feature though, the gun can be programmed to cease fire when it registers a particular symbol. So if a person is wearing that symbol on their shirt, for example, then they can safely walk in front of the sentry, while everyone around them attempts to dodge a hail of darts.
As it stands, the gun can be loaded with a 100-round ammo belt, which runs out quickly but could likely be expanded with a little extra modification. According to the designer, the sentry is extremely accurate and will even anticipate where a target is moving to so as to catch up with them. If needed, the gun can also be controlled using a regular gamepad or joystick connected to the laptop.
It sounds like a lot of work to put this together, but it's probably all worth it to have an automated guard posted anywhere you want. If you'd like to take a crack at building your own Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun, Michelsen has posted detailed step-by-step instructions on Instructables.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nanotubes boost potential of salinity power as a renewable energy source

In November 2009, Norwegian state owned electricity company Statkraft opened the world’s first  osmotic power plant prototype , which generates electricity from the difference in the salt concentration between river water and sea water. While osmotic power is a clean, renewable energy source, its commercial use has been limited due to the low generating capacities offered by current technology – the Statkraft plant, for example, has a capacity of about 4 kW. Now researchers have discovered a new way to harness osmotic power that they claim would enable a 1 m 2  (10.7 sq. ft.) membrane to have the same 4 kW capacity as the entire Statkraft plant. The global osmotic, or salinity gradient, power capacity, which is concentrated at the mouths of rivers, is estimated by Statkraft to be in the region of 1,600 to 1,700 TWh annually. Electricity can be generated through the osmotic phenomena that results when a reservoir of fresh water is brought into contact with a reservoir ...
Post a Comment
Read more

NES robot mash-up competes in robo boxing tournament

In a move that brings back memories of the  R.O.B.  (Robotic Operating Buddy) that was available for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, Japanese hobbyist Izumi Ninagawa has simplified the controls of a modern fighting robot to work with a Famicom (8-bit NES) game pad – which has one of the most basic button configurations around. The NES-styled robot even competed in a robot boxing tournament earlier this year Ninagawa's XEMNES robot is based on a lightweight kit sold by De Agostini called  ROBO-XERO , which weighs less than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) and is powered by 24 Futaba servo motors. By attaching a Bluetooth dongle to the robot with a special micro controller, Ninagawa was able to take advantage of various wireless controllers, including the Nintendo Wii remote. The remote was then hidden inside the shell of a Famicom, and attached to the Famicom controller using an adapter to complete the set-up. Despite the NES pad's limited number of buttons, variou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wired wood: Gizmag's top ten wooden gadgets

We may be surrounded by gadgetry clad in shiny aluminum and gaudy plastic, but there's still a place left in the digital age for the comfort, simplicity and beauty of wood. Perhaps its the trend towards a "green" aesthetic or some deeper drive to get back to nature, but we've noticed a growing number of consumer electronics offerings in recent times that mesh circuit boards and synthetics with the wonders of wood. With this in mind, we've scoured our resources to come up with this list of Gizmag's top ten wooden gadgets. OOOMS Wooden USB Stick OOOMS, a design company based in The Netherlands, has created a  USB stick  that is made of … a stick. The creators literally pick up sticks, based on quality and appearance, and professionally work them into unique USB sticks that can hold from 2 to 16 Gb. Wooden Records Amanda Ghassaei has developed a laser cutting system that can  carve music into a wooden record . After pulling audio from a WAV file with P...
Post a Comment
Read more