Three researchers from the Vienna University of Technology used a new control technology to build a dartboard that always guarantees access to the most valuable sphere. It relies on “an innovative system of cable-pulling, high-precision image recognition and control,” the team now explains and demonstrates its construction in a video.
Many cameras record the trajectory of a dart once it has been thrown and calculate within microseconds where it will hit. Precision cables then guide the dart board into the correct position thanks to a “complex mathematical model”. The team explains that everything works in 250 milliseconds.
Rethink automation
As Georg Feiler’s group explains, they started working on the disk with complex mathematical analyzes and implemented the results using cable control. Building this technology would be much more difficult with solid connections, says his colleague Andreas Kogi of the Institute of Automation and Control Technology.
Koji points out that the dart board shows that you can rethink entire operations with existing automation capabilities: “Why shoot with precision when you can also place your darts with precision?” With a little creativity, amazing tech solutions that you might not think possible can be implemented at first.
From darts to basketball
In terms of content, the idea of an auto-tracking dartboard is not new, Youtuber Mark Rober introduced one five years ago. But you had to at least hit the dart board in order to be able to move in such a way that the arrow fell in the center. He also built it in such a way that one arrow always fell in the center and the other always fell off target. He, too, was cable-dependent.
TU Vienna’s dartboard is now also offered in a science article, one version gets four cables. She’s also trained to hit a triple 20. The idea was taken even further on the YouTube channel Stuff Made Here, where she created a basketball hoop that you (almost) can’t miss.
(mo)
