The Catch and Launch Head

The catch and launch head is something we have thought about from the beginning. Some tennis system designers are working on mechanically hitting the ball with an actual tennis racket. While that is possible, the hardware and software requirements for such a system seem daunting.

For tennis training purposes, the player being trained really doesn't care if the ball that is coming at them was hit by a racket or propelled by a wheel as long as the trajectory characteristics are accurate for tennis.

Our current system is designed to catch the ball, but it launches another ball that is already locked and loaded.

While there is nothing wrong with this, a catch and release head is potentially simpler, smaller and more efficient.

We have some hypotheses, including the one pictured above - experiments coming up.