Wich weight category.

Hi everyone,

After many years of watching (and nagging from my son) I have finally committed to building a robot.

I apologies if this question has been answered before, but any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I am currently in the initial stages of design for a machine, but curious as to which weight categories are the most popular. From looking around the forum I get the impression that there are not many machines in the middle or light weight categories, but am very keen to compete, but don't want to build something that I can't enter in any match.

I'm not looking to build a heavy weight, so I'm currently aiming for a feather weight machine. Is this a popular enough weight category to guarantee a match?

Cheers.

Theres also beetle and Ant weights more Ideal for beginners.

But yes Feather weights are very common, with most events hosting feather weight fights along side the heavies.

Cool that's great, thanks for that, Coolspeedbot.

Perhaps I'm being a little ambitious, but I shall pursue the feather weight.

cheers.

Featherweight is the ideal weight category to get yourself started in. Buy a decent transmitter and receiver package and you'll be able to use it for future machines. A lot of what you will learn in the featherweights will be directly applicable to heavyweight machines (albeit with a larger budget!). You can build yourself a decent featherweight for a few hundred quid.

Light and middleweights never got hold in GB or the main land.

Ants and Beetles are a good step in class for those who like to fiddle with small parts.

Feather is easier ,and buildable with readely available material. That is why it's a class with a lot of machines and quite a few events, even full combat with spinners and all included.


If you want something more challenging, the 6 kg raptor class is fun, but unfortunatly, not so common in the UK.

For fame and great whopping BANGS, it's heavy.

You could also decide this depending on what machines etc. you've got access to.
Building ants is often done with 3D-printing and stuff like that, but else could be done with usual "household" tools.
While Feathers are quiet often involving hardox steel and "heavy" stuff like that, so wielding and an assortment of quality tools could be really useful (although plastics like HDPE is also common).

Cheers guys, some great tips there. Thanks.

Hi,

I would start with a Feather Weight project, I like "real" mechanics and FW class is a good compromise between size/fun.

Beetles and Feathers are hosted at the vast majority of events now, featherweights are often resigned to massive rumbles between heavyweight fights at live events (or the truly excellent Insomnia robot battles, which is a full competition) whereas beetles are always full combat, meaning it's anything goes (spinners etc being allowed)

Normally I'd recommend beetleweights to newcomers with them being hilariously cheap and manageable at only 1.5kg, but would I be right in saying this is a team endeavour? If so, I'd go for a featherweight - they're large enough to be able to be worked on by two people at once without getting cramped