[mrwright]

Thanks for all of the compliments! We are really excited to be a part of the robotics community and cannot wait to take in part in FRC.

We started a small team this fall with four students. We competed in the BEST Robotics Competition for our first competition. After BEST we recruited more students and decided to pass on FRC this season due to low numbers. We thought that one of the best ways to generate student numbers and interest was to build this t-shirt cannon. It has been a huge hit among the student body, the administration and the community.

We went from four members in the fall to around 15 in January and now we have 30+ students participating in our robotics program. We had the privilege of attending the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis with ten of our team members as well. They had a blast and got to see first hand the best of the best.

Here are some more details on our t-shirt cannon:

Launch Capability:
It can fire t-shirts about 30 yards at the 60 degree pitch. It can fire foam footballs 50+ yards. We can fire t-shirts across our gym and hit all areas of the bleachers from half court which works great for us.

Launch angles:
We have manual pitch adjustment on this robot. We would like to put an electronic motor on it in the future. At this point we use a quick release pin and set it to the desired angle. We usually keep it at 60 degrees as it provides the most arc for our shots.

Cost:
We spent around $2,500 for this robot. That does not include the metal and tanks that were provided by our sponsors. We had to buy everything else though.