Alrighty guys, the date is looming and well, I need some help now.

Arena is almost done, but needs a roof. I'm open to ideas, basically it can be something that'll be good enough for this event and the field of robots and improved later on with 3mm polycarb. We have the funds for it but I don't have the time. Also need to determine some kind of arena lighting but that depends on the roof. Basically the thing needs to be 2440 x 2440 and just sits on top. Without assistance transporting mdf sheets to the uni is impossible, how do people feel about two layers of heavy duty shadecloth/tarp? I know it's not ideal but running out of options.

We will need 3 dedicated judges for the day, ideally people who arn't competing. The matches will be run hard and fast and judges will have to be relied fairly heavy upon. I'm intending to compete but if I can't due to lack of time i'll fill one of the spots.

Prizes: We need some, I can buy some with funds raised or if anyone has something they would like to donate please send me a PM...

Lastly would like to confirm with everyone that we will start weighin/safety at 9AM for a 10AM start, this will have to be done really rapidly so come with your bots charged, assembled and ready to go or risk missing out on the first round. The rounds will be called 5min before to place your robot on a marshalling table. Failure to get your bot there in time for the round means you forfeit that round. Harsh, but with a record number of ants and beetles it's just how things have to be.

Cheers Angus.


_________________
( •_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Ill do what i can to help, but you're pretty far away from here! Im sure we will come up with some plan
_________________
<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

pfft coming down on the thursday, im sure we will come up with something by sunday.. cram the mdf sheet in my car if we have to, ill make it fit :L car has a roof
_________________
Barton Robotics Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/dyl30

Barton Robotics Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/BartonRobotics

Well hopefully i can get the robots totally done and dusted by very early next week then i'll have all week to help out. Dunno how id get into the uni to help though XD
_________________
www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

I may be able to take a day off before the event and help with the roof - if there is a design to build to. From the CAD in the arena build log, there is no frame around the top of the arena and no support for the roof apart from the steel corner posts. to get wooden panels to span 2.4 M without sagging badly, the roof will need a support truss.

We can build a strong enough truss from a sheet of cheap plywood and some pine construction timber, except it will need a table saw large enough to cut up a full sheet - mine isn't long enough for that.

Alternatively, we could build a torsion box roof with a thin plywood skin and light pine or plywood joists. This would be much easier to make and only needs a large flat floor, a nail gun (I haz) and losts of construction adhesive. As long as two 2.4 x 1.2m sheets will overhang the arena walls, this would be ideal.

For the lighting, I have some 50W construction lights that could be used if rectangular holes are cut in the roof; we would need to buy some more lights or get them back from Jeff's place.

There is no roof in the cad, because it was never really designed. I had no idea what was going to work till the rest of it came together. Tomorrow i'll be assembling the lot and then I can see what will work. The torsion box roof idea sounds like the ticket but would be a fair amount of work... and i'm not too certain they will overhang as the floor is a full sheet across and it fits within the steel angles. An idea I thought to overcome the sag would be to screw ali L angles to thin (3mm or something) mdf to resist sagging. Two of the poly panels are going to need to lift up for arena access, so any roof will need to allow clearance above those two (can be any two).

Got a long day ahead tomorrow sorting this out, but it will be done!
_________________
( •_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

The torsion box roof would look like a giant piece of corflute sheet IE a thin 3mm skin of plywood with light wooden battons sandwiched between; Try to avoid MDF sheet; it has a much lower strength to weight ratio and is quite a bit denser than MDF so its much harder to get it to span long distances. Putting it together would be a bit more work than screwing ali angle to wood - withthe ali you would have to drill holes and use sheet metal screws, while with an all wood torsion box you have to lay a bead of adhesive and then nail with a gun. If you never used a nail gun before, you will be AMAZED how fast things go together!

Unless you have access to cheap aluminium section, another idea might be the C section steel used between plasterboard walls, it is probably much cheaper than aluminium and it you skin it with 3mm ply on both sides, it won't look too bad. If you use steel, you can use self-drilling sheet metal screws to assemble the roof. Steel is also much less elastic than aluminium, so the roof should be stiffer.

If you do something like the above, you can make it longer just by adding a strip of ply to one end; you just need to get the wood / aluminium / steel longer than 2.4 M

Either way, there we go, between the two of you fine capable gentlemen it will get sorted
_________________
<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

I'm just fresh outta surgery, so gonna struggle to get my beetleweight done. Will focus on my ants instead. Therefore i can volunteer my time to be a judge for the beetles.
_________________
https://www.halfdonethings.com/

Last edited by Knightrous on Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:31 pm; edited 1 time in total

quote:

---

Originally posted by Knightrous:
I'm just fresh outta surgeryl,

---

Adamantium skeleton?
_________________
<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

Minor surgery. Was ment to happen 2 weeks ago and give me a few weeks recovery before Serial Space, but they had to move my appointment. All good, just an over nighter in the surgical ward

Should have 3 - 4 ants running regardless
_________________
https://www.halfdonethings.com/

Congrats on the gender reassignment!

Nearly down to a week to go! OHGOD I NEED MORE TIME D:
_________________
www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

Event Day Timetable Draft:


Safety and registration 09:00:00 AM 10:00:00 AM
Ants Round 1 10:30:00 AM 11:00:00 AM
Beetle Round 1 11:00:00 AM 11:20:00 AM
Ants Round 2 11:40:00 PM 12:10:00 PM
Beetle Round 2 12:10:00 PM 12:30:00 PM
Ants Round 3 12:50:00 PM 01:20:00 PM
Beetle Round 3 01:20:00 PM 01:40:00 PM
Ants Round 4 02:10:00 PM 02:40:00 PM
Beetle Round 4 02:40:00 PM 03:00:00 PM
Semi Finals 03:30:00 PM 04:00:00 PM
Finals 04:20:00 PM 04:40:00 PM
Rumble 04:40:00 PM 04:50:00 PM

Loads of robots, rounds will be run back to back hard and fast, then 20min break between.
_________________
( •_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Hey all,

Real sorry but beetleweight wise im out rebuilt and tried my best but its still overweight and has ground clearance issues.

Heaps sorry all, if i can swing by an aldi if they have any more of them inflatable rc toys will grab one of them for a laugh but yeah

antweight wise i have two complete ready to go, ashtray is much improved now, lemme just say, magnet, one tooth shell

Launched the chaos 2 toy a fair old distance in testing then
_________________
Andrew Welch, Team Unconventional Robotics