Although we’d all love to shoot a bow and arrow like LegolasOpens in a new tab, for some of us aiming and loosing arrows leaves us at a Lego-loss. Luckily it’s 2021—and we’re not in a fictional world, although we wish we were—and engineers can solve this problem for us. YouTuber and engineer Stuff Made HereOpens in a new tab shows us how with his new “auto-aiming” bow. This bow can indeed perfectly nail flying targets over and over. Probably flying Nazgûl too.
The North Carolina-based engineer and ‘Tuber, who also goes by ShaneOpens in a new tab, recently posted this incredible build to his channelOpens in a new tab. The engineer notes that he made the auto-aiming bow when he realized there was a “hole in his heart” he couldn’t fill. That hole being the lack of an auto-aiming bow for sale online.
Stuff Made Here
As Shane notes in the video, his auto-aiming bow works using pure elven magic. Errr, wait: pure human engineering. The engineer’s robo-bow utilizes two robotsOpens in a new tab. The first is located in between a user’s hand and the bow. Meanwhile, the second is hooked onto the bow’s string. The bow also has multiple ball-shaped sensors that work with other externally mounted sensors and cameras to auto-aim at a target.
Shane offers demonstrations of the final bow build approximately 12 minutes into the video. His build utilizing a compound bow works perfectly. At least it does in his own garage, where the externally mounted cameras can track sensors on the bow and the target. These sensors glean the necessary distance data to feed into the bow-bot’s computers so they position the arrow properly for shootingOpens in a new tab. Shane ultimately shows how the auto-aiming bow can consistently hit flying bullseyes. It even manages to tip a tiny LEGO “apple” off a William Tell figure.
Stuff Made Here
Despite the extraordinary performance of the robot bow in Shane’s garage, it doesn’t seem to work that well elsewhere. That’ll be changing soon, however, as the engineer’s already working on a 2.0 version of the auto-aiming bow. This update can’t come soon enough if you ask us. We’d rather not have to practice as much as this guy doesOpens in a new tab in order to keep up with the Elves.
