"Compressed Air" vs. "High Pressure Blower"

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Technically when a robot drives forward it compresses the air in front of it, thus (according to your definition) all drivetrains are illegal.

Fans and blowers, in the past, have been deemed legal and not part of the 'pneumatics system' as long as they were powered by a legal motor.

I would Q&A this question, and I would expect a blower system to be legal. Whether it's effective or not is another question

The difference is the accumulation of air. If you are constraining air in a high pressure environment, it's a pneumatic system. The concern here is mostly one of safety - any constrained high-pressure (in this case, greater than normal air pressure) system carries with it the risk of sudden rupture... aka something similar to an explosion. Fans and blowers, on the other hand, simply push air from one point to another - they can create a current of air that might be higher pressure than the surrounding air in the venue, but it's not constrained. The dissipation of that higher pressure stream can occur naturally, and there's no worry of rupture or danger to others since its not constrained. Of course, the design of such a fan or blower would be scrutinized for safety in and of itself, the same as any moving mechanism on a robot.