Simulation and Experimental Investigation of the Ball Motion of a Rotationally-Launched Tennis Ball Serving Machine

During tennis training, players often rely on coaches to manually feed balls, which is a labor-intensive and costly process. For many amateur tennis enthusiasts, hiring professional training partners is financially impractical. Additionally, existing tennis serving machines on the market lack the finesses required to replicate the coach’s close-range feeding style. To address this gap, there is a clear need for a tennis ball machine that enables solo multi-ball practice with automatic feeding. In response, this study proposes a compact, cost-effective tennis ball serving machine utilizing a rotational projectile launching mechanism to minimize ball wear and reduce machine size and cost. The system consists of a launching mechanism, ball feeding mechanism, intermittent transmission, ball storage module, and a sensing and control unit. This paper analyzes the forces acting on the tennis ball during launch, develops a mathematical model, and simulates the ball’s flight trajectory using MATLAB. The proposed design effectively meets the demands of various training scenarios, offering both portability and affordability.