The 2009 MMDC at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

2009 Challenge Description: Dart Shooter

What to design

Your mission is to design a functional dart shooter. You may choose the parts, materials and means of propulsion with one exception: no explosives. (Prototypes containing explosives or pyrotechnics cannot be fired on campus—sorry).

What should your dart shooter do?

In short, your dart shooter should be accurate enough to hit the center of a regulation dart board and yet be adjustable enough to hit multiple boards. You can also enter the competition for best aesthetic design, best design proposal, and best overall design.

Limited and Full Competition

Students can enter a prototype and costing (limited competition) and be in the running for Most Accurate, Target Array, and Best Aesthetic design. Limited competition is designed for younger students who have not yet learned drafting or technical writing.

To enter the full competition, students need to provide a written proposal for their design and corresponding paperwork. Those students will be in the running for the above awards as well as Best Design Proposal and Best Overall Design.

Design Parameters

• The design must have safeties in place for loading and unloading.Your design must include interlocks, pressure release valves, switches or other safeties to ensure that the dart shooter will not fire during loading and can be unloaded safely without firing.
• Misfires during loading/unloading will result in disqualification.
• Your prototype must fit within an 18” x 18” x 18” box, but may be partially assembled during the competition as long as the assembly and strike fit into the time frames allotted.
• Darts must be commercially available, regulation soft tip darts. You may alter the dart to work with your machine, but it must remain soft-tipped.
• You will need to create a proposal for your dart shooter to enter into the competition for best proposal and best overall design.
• You are responsible for the costs of your prototype. However, schools are allowed to sponsor their students and you may use parts from your school’s stock if you include the retail costs of the items in your costing (and, of course, if you have permission from your school).
• You will have an opportunity to assemble (if necessary) and test your dart shooter on the morning of the competition.
• Participants may screw or lag their dart shooter to the floor. However, installation and strike of your device cannot exceed the times stipulated in the Awards section, participants must supply all of their own hardware and tools, and all tools must fit into the 18” box with the device.