Next Gen RailGun
What is a RailGun
The railgun is a mechanical device which is capable of shooting metal projectiles by accelerating them using magnetic forces. A very simple railgun would consist of two metal rods aligned parallel to each other with the metal rods connected to opposite ends of a DC power source. Since the metal rods do not touch each other, no current flows in the circuit. Then a metal projectile is inserted in between the two rails. This completes the circuit and current flows through the circuit. This current creates a magnetic force on the projectile in the direction parallel to the rails and accelerates the projectile. The projectile accelerates until it is off the rails by which point it can gain a tremendous speed and, the projectile looks like a fired bullet, hence the name, railgun.
Physics of the Railgun
Embedded systems to Railgun
To this simplistic model of the railgun, some new features can be added. The first that comes to my mind is a data collector and a LED displayer. I imagine designing an embedded system that would get the data of every single railgun shot, things like the time when it got fired, the velocity of the projectile, the amount of electric power used in every shot, the efficiency of power conversion and so on. This data would be displayed instantly on the LED display once the projectile is shot. One could also use this data to characterize the railgun, how good it is at shooting the projectile.
Automatic Projection
Another feature that could be added to this railgun would be automatic shooting. In traditional railguns, there you need to mechanically get the projectile between the rails before it can accelerate. I imagine making the process automatic where a command to the embedded system pushes the projectile between the rails. I could then go ahead and issue a command to the embedded system from my phone which could then shoot the railgun.