Football launchers are commonly used on professional football teams for players to train to catch the ball. While widely adopted by NFL teams, the launchers remain inaccessible to smaller, more amateur teams due to their high price point of over $3,000. Our team aimed to make a football launcher similar to the industry standard with a $300 budget and an automated feed system. 

To measure the success of our project and its ability to stand beside those in industry, we developed a set of requirements for the launcher. 

• Achieve a spiral on the football of over 500 RPM

• Launch the football over 25 yards

• Launcher should be battery-powered

• Launcher should be able to be operated by one person

These requirements were chosen based on what we would expect from an amateur quarterback pass. We chose the spiral rate based on an article from Wilson citing the average quarterback spiral spin rate being 650 RPM. We scaled this down slightly to meet more of an amateur level. The distance requirement was based on other amateur football launchers like the All Pro Passer Robotic Quarterback which launches over 25 yards. We made battery power a requirement to make the launcher practical for field use where wall power would not be accessible. Lastly, we had a requirement of being able to be operated by one person so it could be useful for individual practice and market to that user group.