Patent attributes
A game ball throwing machine that shoots balls with motorized spinning wheels has a computer processor with wheel speed equations that determine the wheel speeds according to input parameters of pitch speed, ball spin amount, and ball spin direction that a user enters through a human-machine interface on a control panel. The processor includes acceleration equations that determine the trajectories of the balls and also has a time in flight equation that is used with the acceleration equations and a distance to a target location to determine the impact point of a ball according to the same input parameters used to determine the wheel speeds. The processor determines variations in the orientation of the machine to change the impact point to a reference aim-point. The HMI can also include an aim-point change input. The ball spin direction indicator on the HMI has either a linear configuration or a polar configuration.
