Austin Man Builds Candy Cannon, Robot To Hand Out Treats On Halloween

Creative adults are bringing their A game to this year's Halloween. That includes Luke Keyes of Austin, who goes all out of the October holiday.

"I love trick-or-treating. To me, I like trick-or-treating a little more than Christmas because at Christmas you give gifts to your friends and family. Halloween, you give gifts to everybody," Keyes told KVUE.

He usually creates a haunted garage for his neighbors to enjoy, which drew around 100 people last year. But with COVID-19 that was out of the picture. So Keyes tapped into his inventive skills so that the local kids could still have a fun and unique Halloween.

One of his inventions is a candy cannon. He filmed a demo in the air cannon in action for Twitter. Once Keyes loads the cannon with a small bag of candy and pulls back a lever, the candy goes flying. It goes far, too.

"OK, it's a little unpredictable and a little dangerous," Keyes admitted.

His second attempt at a socially distanced Halloween is Artie the robot. He's had Artie for a few years so he fixed it up for a very important job this year: delivery candy.

"Right now we probably don't want humans to hand-deliver candy, so why don't we use a robot for it?" he said.

Artie can be driven around with a remote control and has a tray that kids can pluck candy from. With big metal eyes and no mouth, Artie can be a little spooky for younger kids, but he's sparking older kids' interest in robotics.

Photo: Luke Keyes