Robots on Veteran's Day

Somehow, implausibly, we pulled it off again.  A full double elimination combat robot event for 20 teams in exactly four hours.  Full report tomorrow.  But a couple of images for a Monday morning.

Singing the National anthem before the event began.  Nobody needed to be told...they stood. The hats came off.  You will note no protests.

And what the heck is this?  Our first ever robot that actually fired projectiles!  Oh, its nothing exotic, it was based on some kind of spring loaded confetti launcher with a geared down motor to turn the firing crank.  Oh, and it was filled not with confetti but with either pennies or nuts and bolts.  Sort of a little robot shotgun.

It even had a laser beam for aim and a little ramp on the front to raise and lower the elevation of the muzzle.  Of course it was very low powered and did not actually do any damage.

But it did win the Best Design award.