Baseball Fielding Machine

Project Background

There are ways to practice baseball offense with pitching machines, but there aren't many options when it comes to fielding machines. Traditionally, baseball fielding practice is carried out by a coach or some person standing at home plate and hitting a ball to fielders. This means that practicing fielding techniques such as catching balls, fielding grounders, and pitching is largely impossible without the presence of additional personnel. The Baseball Fielding Machine will take the place of the second person and allow someone who wants to practice their pitching or fielding to do so alone.

Objective

The overall objective is to build a machine that will throw balls at different trajectories and speeds up to 70 mph so that players can catch them and then throw them back into a net that will feed the machine for constant practice. Additionally, the machine will require remote control capabilities that allow the user to control the feed rate, trajectory, and velocity of the balls being launched.

There is a gap in the market; while similar concepts exist, all of them require constant reloading, manual baseball collection, and none of them can replace a coach or second person on the field. This machine will allow for solo practice.

Here are some designs for the sub assemblies in more detail: