Are you planning a flip out zone in the arena?
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So even the rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems

do we get a ram out or a spin out zone as well
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A couple of things I have been thinking of is an idea similar to an American arena that I have seen in videos. I can't remember which arena or which competitions but they had something they called the "pit of inconvenience". It was a pit about 50mm deep. Not enough to stop all robots but wedges and most spinners had a difficult time getting out.
There was also an English arena that used lengths of steel across the arena as speed bumps to try and discourage wedges.
What I am thinking is to use right angle steel to make a 30mm ish speed bump diagonally across the corner of the arena 0.5m from the corner. It would be quick and simple to setup, easy to repair and easy to remove if unpopular. A bonus is that it would also help strengthen the arena.
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I think Dragon.con in the US has anti-wedge ridges in their arena to discourage wedges. I'm not saying don't do it, but what value does it add for the audience and the competitors? Even a 10mm high ridge would stop most bots and we would all have to build 'off-road' bots with clearance and larger wheels to avoid being beaten by the arena. I can't go anyway, so I am not biased either way.

If you want more visuals and action, just change the rules to make an active weapon mandatory, at lest competitors won't be beaten by the arena.

I'm not anti wedge. Just anti wedges not being able to do anything to an opponent. If a wedge has a small area of the arena to aim for then I think it would be much more exciting than watching robots bounce of the walls for 3 minutes.
While devastator was designed to have 20mm of ground clearance at the back I was still extremely surprised when it could drive up a 30mm vertical gap in the floor panels at Robogames. That is driving forwards by the way, not reverse. Scary-go-round, which was built for Dragon.con, has 3 retractable wedges that ride over the bumps in the floor. Wedges can handle any surface.
If you can't beat a simple arena then how do you expect to beat an opponent? If you want to be the best then you must be able to cope with anything.


(I wonder what sort of response I would get if I mention my idea of half filling the arena with water?)
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i dont like the idea of the arena stuff much (and its not becasue i own a wedge)

2 things. Daniel what hapens if the robot enters the arena but pulls out before the start of the fight for whatever reason Or for that matter if someone farfits befor the match are both these the same as a bye for the one that could fight or do you have a more fare way for someone if there compeditor can not compete?

and my bot registered may (probably will) change

filling it with water would be sorta cool and sorta annoying. funny to watch cause the robots seem semi aquatic but prob gonna be a pain in the ass to water proof everything (cover it with tape)
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If any robots get less than the advertised number of matches then they will be drawn off against each other. If there is an odd number of robots that need to fight then a volenteer robot will be used. The volenteer robot will not be fighting for points. This is the fairest method i can think of as awarding points for byes my harm someones chances for getting to the finals.
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thats why we use averages.
That way a bye doesn't count for or against.
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Average scores only work for average robots. It is not hard to eliminate byes from any draw plus everyone is happier because of it. Nobody likes to sit back and watch everyone else fight waiting for their turn.
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ok theres 5 bots, how do you have a round with no byes or 3 ways?
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

If I recall correctly we should have a 4WD all terrain waterproof drum bot buried here somewhere left over from ultibots.

So bring on the bumps and water.


It might limit the number of bots you will still have runing if you have lots of arena hazards if you are running for longer than 2 days.

Did someone say the wonted a 4 or 5 day event?

Really bumps and speed humps wont stop wedges, Rat can get over big bumps in reverse.

Its getting caught under the edges of arenas that puts us of using wedges.
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@Valen: Who in their right mind would have a single round competition? I am sorry but it seems your nit picking for the sake of an argument that doesn't need to happen.

@Rotwang: The Ideas festival runs for 4 days Friday to Monday. Dates are still being set but I suppose now is a good time to ask who can come either Friday or Monday to make it a 3 day comp?
We have been asked for at least 1 day to be run as workshops for school kids. This will be done as a quick tour of the insides of a robot, tour of the arena and a demonstration. Emphasis will be on keeping things simple to help encourage more builders.

Our arena design has the floor panels butting up against the arena wall so it wont be possible to get wedged under anything. This combined with the smooth walls means it will be entirely up to the robots to KO opponents and having reviewed the current field of robots that means an awful lot of potential judges decisions. That is why I have considered a small hinderence to one corner of the arena. I keep emphasising small but it doesn't seem to sink in. I am not talking about off-road robots.
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Last edited by kkeerroo on Mon Sep 15, 2008 8:24 pm; edited 1 time in total

Well just to throw my thing in for this speed bump idea I don't mind one way or another but need to know asap what is going to happen
I am about to build my robot for the event (parts just arrived) and currently would not work well with a 30mm bump so would need to change the robot dramatically. 10-20mm would be nicer
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At this stage we will not be having any obstacles for the main competition but will be bringing "samples" for demonstration matches. I also do not know what is and is not a good idea but I would like to experiment.
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