| 摘要 |
An improved ball pitching apparatus for a ball pitching machine of the type having an upper and lower wheel, said wheels rotating on substantially parallel shafts and having generally aligned and spaced rims carrying peripheral ball gripping bands; independent speed controlled drive motors; a ball feeder for feeding the ball between the spaced rims so that the ball will be gripped and accelerated in a trajectory tangential to the rims; a head frame carrying the wheels, drive motors, and ball feeder; and, a stand carrying the head frame. The improvements comprise: 1) a singular gripping band on one wheel and two spaced gripping bands on the other wheel so that the ball contacts and is gripped by three discrete points on its peripheral surface; 2) one of the wheels rotating on a shaft biased towards the other wheel so that the ball to be pitched will be gripped with a similar force regardless of diameter variations; and, 3) wheel drive DC motors internally positioned within the wheel so that the shafts and bearings in the motors are directly and radially loaded when the ball is gripped and accelerated. Internally driven wheels facilitate microprocessor and programmed memory control of a servo motors to control rotation of the head frame on the stand. This arrangement enables quick and precise adjustment to different pitching positions.
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