Proposal for the whole battery stats stalemate.

I have heard all pros and cons on battery stats from both sides, and I have a proposition which i think might the most elegant solution to the dilemma.

First: No robot will ever work without batteries. So not including them in your specs means your robot does not work. Not even with petrol engines.

second: Vapourbot roboteers still underestimate the importance of batteries. You cant shove 4 mags in a robot, claim 36V on them, and not have any less than 15kg worth of batteries in there. Even with A123s which does help a lot it still is a large chunk of your robots weight.

Third: The argument against battery stats is that people, and beginners especially, find it too difficult. Which is true in a sense, and you would not be the first real robot builder that miscalulates on it either.

Fourth: Writers do not check the stats on batteries every time a vapourbot is entered, so there is no incentive for vapourbot builders to include them.

Therefore my proposal is this:

Agree on a standard batterypack. Make it a default size and weight, and give that a standard voltage and maximum current draw.

Agree that for every type of used motor, you need a set amount of packs, and therefore the volume and weight that go along with it.

That way all of us will know when you see in the stats, 2 Magmotors 28-400 on 36V, you will need to see 2 time X amount of packs. Any less, and you will know the robot will not last the distance should the robot need to go the full 5 minutes.

All writers need to take these stats into account, and if one roboteer tries to enter without battery stats, disqualify them.

The way I see it, it is the most fair way to have a competition where there are a lot of variables to take into account. But it also means that there would be a more sensible amount of power claimed by certain roboteers. You want 2 48V ETEK motors? Fine, you pay the penalty by having a load of extra battery packs on top of the 22kg of the motors themselves.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

I dont think its the most charming solution there is but it might just work. People will be forced to consider their batteries when designing, yet nobody has to dig all that deep into it. The battery stuff will be done for them basically.
Mind you that Ive always been desiging my vapours this way, kinda, reserving weight for batteries in my designs that is.
A downside here may be that, well, well be using vapour battery packs so to speak, while this game always was about using realistic, exsisting parts. I mean:
Motor: 2 LEM-200s
Armour: 4 mm Hardox
Power: 2 fantasy batteries
may look a bit odd (they probably wont be called fantasy batteries anyway, just proving a point).
That all being said, people whore actually into batteries shouldnt feel forced to use this system at all, I would be heavily against that.

All in all this solution forces us to actually consider battery weight into our designs and SHOW that were doing so...

I think its the most charming solution for people who know as much about batteries as they know of Hakilajigoiiotrophy (which doesnt exist :proud:) it means that you can just put motors down, and the writer wont be in-your-face nagging Wheres the batteries, wheres the batteries, as theyll go here, and go Jims using LEM130s at 48V, so thatll mean he has ??????????? for batteries

Its a good idea Leo.

Martijn: In that case you would have 2 options: Either get the proper stats for existing batteries and do the actual calculations, or resort to the battery packs provided in the vapourbot section. Of course these packs would be based on actual existing packs, so the are not just picked random numbers.

@paul: It does mean that if you put down your motors in your stats, you will also put the batteries in the stats, and you will have to keep into account the size and weight of them in your stats so they will fit in your robot and your robot has enough weigh left over. It is not a get out of jail free card.

I think it is simple:

1) If you do not know about batteries, take it from the list of standard battery packs for the motors you have

2) If you know about batteries, do what you want

So I think it is a good idea to pst some standard battery packs here

I think Martijn has a point. People that do calculate their own battery stats, can get away with less weight because they can tailor make their own packs. Going the easy way will probably mean more added weight and space.

It will give an incentive to roboteers to learn about batteries so they can take advantage of it, but beginners or intermediates who do not grasp the concept will still be able to play.

Basically its reward for knowledge, but keep a baseline for those still learning.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

(Message edited by leorcc on August 14, 2008)

(Message edited by leorcc on August 15, 2008)

If you want something like this, I think the easiest thing would you to be to have a reference table of figures for writers. Just bunch motors into say three groups (high drain, medium drain, low drain) and have that against the voltage, and then have the weights required, have that somewhere like the beginners guide where people can use it for reference if they want, but is not actually required.

So something like

-------24v----36v-----48v
High---xkg----xkg-----xkg
Med----xkg----xkg-----xkg
Low----xkg----xkg-----xkg

Then a quick list of what batteries are in each category, this way its reference for both writers and designers, but no one is forced into anything.

The games too much like hard-work these days

I can remember the olden days where batteries were one of the things people assumed would last the distance.