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Valen
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney
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funbotics - new class
It is becoming apparent that the unlimited class is becoming harder and harder to compete in. Basically its becoming less about fun and more about spending money. There have been proposals in the past to create limited classes but they all seem to have been too limited. What we want to create is a class that's easy to get into, easy to repair, low cost and with lots of room for creativity and most importantly it has to look spectacular. To do this we want a class with as few rules as possible whilst maintaining a balance between weapons and armour. Taking ideas from the battlebots comp and the big guns boats we are proposing something like the following, we are open to suggestions.
These rules are additions to the existing robowars rules.
1) All bots are to be made of MDF (50% by weight ex batteries)
2) Kinetic energy limit on weapons
3) Weight Limit
4) "Open Source" and Community approval
5) No frames allowed
6) No external metal except weapons.
7) All bots must be "decorated" prior to competition start.
KE Limit will be in the form of energy over time Basically so it will allow crushers but not Plan-C style spikes or uber spinners. Basically at this stage we are thinking something like Plan-B based on our experiences with El-Bravo's wheels ;-> and about a quater second for the time (this is so crushing bots are still allowed). Calculating the KE is pretty straight forwards and i'm sure glen will point out the website that has the calculator in it, and I'll make a software program that people can use to calculate the KE of oddball spining designs by drawing it in paint.
Weight limit will exclude batteries.
We are thinking atm a limit on the "watt hours" of the batteries EG 90 What hours. (Amp hours of your pack times the voltage EG 3.6 * 24 = 86.4WH) this should be calculated at the *effective* Amp Hour rating of the battery (3 minutes rather than 20 hour)
Open Source means to compete you must publish the plans for your bot. Publish in this case would more than likely mean a forum post with some rough sketches. The reasons for doing this are
To encourage newcomers by giving them ready access to working designs (or a close approximation)
New builders will benefit from the peer review.
Encourage builders to build to a high standard and help newcomers avoid common pitfalls.
Community Approval. Thinking this will be a 2 step process, Basically before you build it the community (IE
BUILDERS
) should say its ok, and before the event a majority of competitors (on the day) must also approve your bot. This is to prevent the exploitation of loopholes and stop bots that are against the spirit of the class. Safety is up to the event organiser.
The reasons for the choice of MDF are
its affordable
its readily available
easy to work
breaks in a cool fashion
easily repairable
the 50% figure was pulled from the ass of a passing donkey and as such is subject to change.
No frames allowed; Means that the MDF is structural damaging the MDF will lead to a broken bot that can be easily repaired.
We are tying to avoid framed Bots (welded, bolted, glued, riveted) because we what to see robot disabled though damage and then rebuilt for the next heat.
You can us blocks, brackets, angels, etc of any material to joining of MDF panels
No External metal. Basically speaking we dont want people to make titanium corner joints and put them on the outside cos it'll break peoples weapons. but if you have a rambot spikes and the like are fine.
"decoration", bowing to public pressure it seems that some form of decoration is in order, what people see wrong with furry tan boxes battling each other to the death i will never know. As such some form of suitiblle decoration is in required $3 worth of spray cans at bunnings should fit the bill. Only hitch i see here is theres some rules about spray cans for the younger guys, if you get the can when you are buying some XU1s and some MDF i dont think anybodys going to have too much of a problem. i am thinking we may have another "free weight" category for easily weighed "bling" you want the knightrider LED's and the marvin the martion bobbing head sure thing but if you dont want them in the weigh in make em easily removablle, so we can weigh it then put em back on. What constitutes "bling" and what constitutes "titanium armor" is left to the community voting.
Basically what we are trying for is a competition that anybody can enter and everybody will enjoy. We want a somewhat more level playing field but one where chunks of bot still go flying.
This is still very much a work in progress and all input on it is appreciated.[/b] _________________ Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets
Last edited by Valen on Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:16 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Sat Sep 03, 2005 6:02 pm |
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