Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur
I agree that preventing them from scoring does little, but I'm wondering if a ducted fan could be used to deflect the ball coming off of the return just enough to prevent them from acquiring the ball.
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Hey, I like that even better. Have a nearly upwards airflow and have the ball float over the re-director. You need about 450 grams of lift on the ball to do that. Be careful not to cause physical lifting or backward rolling while ball is still on the overpass. Pretty sure that that is a penalty or worse.
No time to calculate right now to calculate terminal velocity of our ~ 1 lb (~450 gm) 27.5 inch circumference ball but I would guess at least 55 feet/sec airflow to make it float, probably more. And even more velocity needed if drag of loop bot structure is considered.
Be careful that flow cross-section gradient does not cause ball to stop and roll backward.
Start here:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/shaped.html
Hmm .... if the countermeasures bot takes station on the hump, it can avoid a lot of the risk of blowing the ball backwards. Do not however blow it sideways off the overpass. Staying on the hump would be near impossible but mention this scheme only to keep the ideas rolling. Also, I wonder if incidental altering the rolling speed of the ball on the overpass with airflow is legal. Any fan solution will do some of this.
An air vortex cannon impulse would not disturb ball till it leaves overpass but no idea of the scale required for an effective disruption nor energy efficiency.