Compact ball launching system and associated methods

A ball launching system comprising:

• a ball hopper;
• a carousel disposed under the ball hopper configured to receive one or more balls from the ball hopper, the carousel defining a plurality of ball dispense position locations, and being coupled to a shared dispense shaft, the shared dispense shaft being configured to actuate the carousel when rotated;
• a ball dispensing mechanism configured to receive at least one ball of the one or more balls from the carousel, wherein the ball dispensing mechanism comprises:
• a pre-launch chamber disposed under the carousel, the pre-launch chamber being configured to receive the at least one ball from the carousel;
• a dispense gate comprising a plurality of radially projecting ball stop tabs, the dispense gate being coupled to the shared dispense shaft such that each radially projecting ball stop tab of the plurality of radially projecting ball stop tabs is substantially aligned with a ball dispense position location of the plurality of ball dispense position locations of the carousel, the shared dispense shaft being configured to actuate the dispense gate when rotated, the dispense gate being configured to hold the at least one ball within the pre-launch chamber until the dispense gate is actuated to feed the at least one ball to a ball dispensing channel;
• and
• a dispensing motor configured to rotate the shared dispense shaft and actuate the carousel and the dispense gate;
• and
• a launching mechanism configured to receive the at least one ball from the ball dispensing mechanism, the launching mechanism comprising a plurality of motor-driven launching wheels configured to propel the at least one ball from the ball launching system;
• and
• an azimuth adjustment mechanism, wherein the azimuth adjustment mechanism comprises at least one fixed motor-driven azimuth adjustment wheel in contact with a ground surface where the ball launching system is resting, the at least one fixed motor-driven azimuth adjustment wheel being configured to be selectively driven by an azimuth adjustment motor configured to change an azimuth orientation of the entire ball launching system relative to a ground surface where the ball launching system is resting when the azimuth adjustment motor is actuated.