Our team is thinking about ways to be a defending robot and we thought about using a large fan that we could use to blow flying boulders off its intended trajectory.
Is this legal? We have found no rule outlawing it, but we are not sure. Is this something we should be asking on the Q&A section?
There are no rules prohibiting it. However, you’ll need to be careful about safety.
Also, there have been studies in the past that indicate that it probably won’t be as effective as you might think.
Because a week of your build season has gone by already, and at this point teams really shouldn’t waste time on a dead idea. I’ll go beyond what EricH wrote.
You won’t be able to blow flying boulders off course. While it might be theoretically possible in near-perfect circumstances to deflect them a tiny, but measurable, amount, it is a wholly impractical defensive method.
Doing the experiments,etc for this is valuable (in off-season?); but probably less valuable (right now) than investing your time in properly developing a design that is much more likely to pay off.
Blake
this was attempted a few times in 2012 (I think 492 was one of those teams that tried it). never really did much. and these balls are heavier.
In theory you could make a fan with a legal motor. However, the rules do not seem to contemplate that (only considered fans with built in motors), and would would have to comply with any rule specific to fans.
There’s nothing saying you can’t take 4 of your 6 allotted CIMS, stick them in a custom gearbox, attach it to a fan blade, put the entire thing in a safe enclosure, and go of on your marry way to your first match. Where you would probably then discover that the ball isn’t going to be particularly persuaded to alter its course.
Do with the information in this thread as you will, but the suggestion would be get your hands on an industrial fan, point it upwards, and then throw a ball through the stream.