58 SERVO 12.2015
added some more foam balls — we mean ornaments — and
some tinsel. We raised the angle of the cannon a bit too.
After pressurizing and firing, the tree trimmings hurled out
of the cannon but fell short of the tree. We upped the
pressure to 80 PSI, raised the angle a bit more, and on the
next shot we spectacularly overshot the tree and decorated
the ground with tinsel and large foam ornaments. We
readjusted the angle, lowered the pressure a hair, and
finally had a rope of tinsel successfully land on the timber.
We adjusted the yaw of the cannon a bit to try and
keep our shots centered, but the next one went wide
to the left. We adjusted the yaw again and —
confident we were dead centered — upped the
pressure to about 85 PSI. The mass of tinsel and foam
ornaments caught the top of the tree and knocked it
to the ground, like Harry and Marv getting clocked by
swinging paint cans on a staircase. We lowered the
pressure and the pitch a bit, and our final shot
decked out the tree with some more ornaments and
tinsel. The finished product didn’t quite look like your
traditionally decorated Christmas tree, but it wasn’t
bad for a robot’s first Christmas.
Of course, we also used the Mark II for proper
punkin chunkin. It was hard to gauge with the
unusual projectile of a tangle of tinsel, but the Mark II
was significantly more powerful than the Mark I. The
bigger valve made a huge, noticeable difference. The
pumpkins shattered on impact — even the solid ones
— and we even cracked the plywood target that we
had set up 60 feet down range.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
A TREE SO SAD, CHARLIE BROWN
MUST HAVE PICKED IT OUT. OH TANNEN-BOOM.
HOLIDAY CHEER INCOMING!
