A bowling machine for cricket

BY MANJARI Peiris

FOUR students attached to the Engineering Faculty of the University of Moratuwa have designed and fabricated a bowling machine suitable for cricket.

They have produced a quality bowling machine at low cost. This machine is capable in imitating a range of deliveries with sufficient accuracy. It employs a primitive mechanism for motor control at the moment, but with the use of micro-controller technology it may be automated.

Therefore as an improvement they have introduced a micro-controller based control system that will automate the machine.

There are several types of expensive bowling machines in the market. They differ in complexity, yet they cannot accurately mimic the bowling patterns of a professional bowler. They use special seamless rubber balls instead of actual leather cricket balls.

As a result these bowling machines fail to give the batsman the actual feeling when he faces a leather ball.

The high cost of the bowling machines limit their use to professional players. Their maintenance too is high. This cricket-bowling machine has been developed to overcome these limitations.