Do you think air currents will be an issue?

[B Dot]

Originally Posted by Alex.q

A defensive robot may use a fan to intentionally misdirect the frisbees. I don't know how effective this would be, but I remember some bots used ducted fans in Lunacy.

From what i remember, the fans in lunacy were used to create more downforce as well as a lateral force to aid their speed around the low friction surface. I am not sure how this would translate to hindering another team and their ability to score

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by B Dot

From what i remember, the fans in lunacy were used to create more downforce as well as a lateral force to aid their speed around the low friction surface. I am not sure how this would translate to hindering another team and their ability to score

Point the fan up

No, the air in a large arena is fairly benign.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by B Dot

From what i remember, the fans in lunacy were used to create more downforce as well as a lateral force to aid their speed around the low friction surface. I am not sure how this would translate to hindering another team and their ability to score

We (1771) used two ducted fans on our lunacy bot. They provided about 10 extra pounds of thrust, laterally of course.

It was great, we could push anything around.

On the other hand, engaging the fans would drop our battery to about 6 or 7 volts. The battery would be shot every match.

Point being, I think for any robot to create airflow to deflect the fast moving Frisbees, it will be at a high battery cost.

[Andrew Schreiber]

After running our shooter prototype outdoors today I can say it had minimal impact on the left/right consistency (we were shooting in reasonably high winds) Our of the 8/10 shots I saw we were able to hit a vertical 2x4 with all of the shots from 30'. However, we did see quite a bit of up/down inconsistencies but we are working on identifying the cause of those.

[PizzaBoxZombie]

The thought of defensively pointing fans up in the air occurred to us as well, and we did some testing with several large fans we had on hand in the shop. The results were pretty conclusive: even our massive 3 hp blower could not do any significant damage to the trajectory. The frisbee is simply in the air stream for too small of a time period.
Some other things we tried were angling the fan to blow towards and away from the frisbee, and neither had any more significant effect. All positions really lifted the frisbee several inches higher but it dropped right back down on the other side. We guessed something to do with the air stream was sucking it back down to where it started.
However- we didnt test upside down, as someone mentioned, nor did we duct the fan and test. We just quickly came to the conclusion that it wasnt worth the battery space and let the idea go.

I would love to see a system that works though!

[CalTran]

Clearly this concept is why FIRST gave us 6 CIMs to put on the robot. Stick all 6 into a 6 CIM gearbox for a fan and use MiniCIMs for a drive. I don't think you'll be able to blow a properly propelled frisbee off course unless you're pinning the offensive robot. And at that point, just push them over.

[nighterfighter]

Out of curiosity, how well would using compressed air blasts work to deflect them?

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

Out of curiosity, how well would using compressed air blasts work to deflect them?

Considering you have only 1/8 NPT solenoids and a working pressure of 60PSI, (Rules R78 and 81, respectively), I'd hazard a guess to say rather poorly.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Considering you have only 1/8 NPT solenoids and a working pressure of 60PSI, (Rules R78 and 81, respectively), I'd hazard a guess to say rather poorly.

I'm sure you are right. It would be almost impossible to aim, time, and get the blast close enough anyway.

So what about using a vacuum to suck the Frisbee away, like a tractor beam...

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

It would be almost impossible to aim, time, and get the blast close enough anyway.

I bet 1551 could do it again