International Journal of Environment, Engineering, and Education
Vol. 8 No. 1 (2026)

Engineering Design and Prototyping of an Automated Shuttlecock Feeder with Programmable Court-Zone Targeting

P. E. Punithan (Department of Sports Technology, Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
R. Ramakrishnan (Department of Sports Technology, Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
G. Nallavan (Department of Sports Technology, Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
K. Jayanarasimhan (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)



Article Info

Publish Date
01 Mar 2026

Abstract

Manual multi-shuttle badminton drills can introduce variability in feeding rate and placement, reducing training standardization and complicating objective evaluation. Automated, programmable feeding with zone-based metrics can address this limitation. To design and validate a low-cost, automatic nine-shot shuttlecock feeder that delivers shuttlecocks to predefined court zones with controllable speed, direction, and timing. The prototype combined a wooden frame with 3D-printed dropper/ejector components and a dual-wheel launcher fixed at 30°. An ESP32 coordinated two DC motors (launch wheels) and three servomotors (dropper, ejector, and horizontal aiming). Nine-shot programs targeted a 3×3 court grid (left/center/right × front/mid/rear). The feeder was mounted 1.10 m above an indoor regulation court and 1.30 m from the net. For each zone, 12 feather shuttlecocks were launched (108 trials). Dual-camera video (60–120 fps) captured trajectory and top-view landings; Dartfish tagging and planar-homograph calibration converted pixel coordinates to court distances (mean spatial error <3%). All nine programs were executed successfully and produced distinct zone-specific landing distributions. Landing-distance variability was low (coefficient of variation <12% across programs), indicating strong repeatability under fixed settings; rear-court programs showed longer mean distances with similarly tight dispersion. Feeding reliability was 100% across 108 launches, with no blocking, double-feeding, or missed shots. Flight time and estimated near-field launch speed changed consistently with the programmed motor settings. The proposed feeder enables repeatable, structured multi-shuttle training and provides a practical framework for quantifying zone-delivery performance, with future work directed toward refining closed-loop targeting.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

ijeedu

Publisher

Subject

Civil Engineering, Building, Construction & Architecture Computer Science & IT Education Electrical & Electronics Engineering Engineering Environmental Science

Description

The International Journal of Environment, Engineering, and Education [e-ISSN: 2656-8039] is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that is published three times a year [in April, August, and December]; this journal provides the right platform for authors to update their knowledge, information, and ...