bring back t-bone, that couldnt do any damange to beast when we smashed you so im sure that will be safe to use for what we need
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bring back t-bone, that couldnt do any damange to beast when we smashed you so im sure that will be safe to use for what we need
Theres ways round things, this isn't about full combat its about entertainment. Ive been pleased that people have realised it.
If a solid one piece disc is fighting against a robot with sacrificial armour it can in my opinion be done safely.
You were hit by a bolt.... that means the robot had enough power to break it... so we put in the rules thicker bolts for pannels, or remove them altogether, theres always ways round problems, we are engineers, we find sollutions.
Yes I agree a class 2 arena is needed for full combat, but I think theres room for movement. We ran fw spinners for years until they got too powerful, Im proposing instead of building an arena to suit the robots, ( never going to happen ) we build robots to suit the arena.
The FRA shut the door on all spinners, what im proposing, is to experiment with them and find a safe level.
Even if we had a spinner running at such a slow speed it stopped everytime it hit something, put it against a robot with pannels designed to fall off..... then we have a new form of entertainment which I have recognised is lacking from RR events which can be put back in in a safe way.
Im proposing we build a set of stage props, not full combat robots, and its something I will be experimenting with through the summer with some of the teams who have volunteered to get involved with.
Spinner v spinnner would be a no no... thats not what we want.
Spinner v an axe.... or spinner v a low pressure flipper.... and you have entertainment.
It might work, it might not, but unless we try, we never know... thinking out side of the box once again.
John
again jonno a spinner is a spinner weather you call it for full combat or entertainment doesnt make a difference, yes lower the power, make weak armour and stage it but that means parts will fly off easier. Ive not seen a single featherweight spinner ever that has been safe in a net roof. Its been proved lots of times even in the early years. FRA only did something about it when a big piece came out which the audience saw.
I think Jonno will come up with a proven solution to this.
To start with the premise it can't be done means you don't develop things further, if we have a maximum peripheral speed of the weapon and an idea of the mass being thrown,
Jonno can do experiments to prove the system works; the FRA will oversee the results and make a decision on it based on proven repeatable tests,
I€™m not saying it can be done, what I am saying is lets try. :D
there, fixed that for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by roamingrobots
Is it not already in the rules that we can have a spinner at less than 500rpm as long as it's driven by the wheels in a class3 areana? Certainly was last time I looked.
Anyway, safety must be parmount but I am not sure that such entrenched positions on the way we achieve things are helpful. As Craig says, repeatable tests must be carried out to prove safety but as long as they are and they're proved safe then that's fine.
One thing I think seems to have been missed is the suggestions for speed of the disc.
Now Having just tried I can penetrate 1mm aluminium with a screwdriver by hand. Meaning it does not need any more impact than a robot driving at it to make it look like really bad damage.
Most crowds don't necessarily look at material thickness of material :proud: when they see a robot ripped to shreds. Now what I had been thinking about with SMIDSY was welding on some metal strips onto the hardox body and allowing a covering of say 1mm ali down the sides as the sacrificial armour. Now ANY 100kg robot driving into it will rip the ali apart. A disc with just enough momentum to turn (maybe 50rpm) it is likely just to make it look a lot more like a tear and seem far more destructive than it actually is.
Andy
Well I don't do a can't or won't attitude, I make things happen and work.
I'd have given up ages ago if I did !!
It's something which is going to be experimented with, and I think there's enough interest that there will be spinners in 2011.
Can't wait !!
yay spinners :talker: :o :D
Jonno, what if you end up having 2 spinners or more at an event and an audience member asks a request for a spinner v spinner battle, what would we do then?Quote:
Spinner v spinnner would be a no no... thats not what we want.
say no
its not a radio request sho...
Could you not bolt cheap perspex to your Robot so it would crack when hit, and make the robot look more damaged than it is?
That would be a start.
2mm stuff or something.
thats what they plan to doQuote:
Originally Posted by Roland
Personally I love combat robotics as an engineering challenge to see whose machine is the best, Best means strongest, fastest, most powerful and most destructive. You have to allow roboteers to build their dreams/nightmares otherwise all the machines turn out the same and are boring. Spinners are essential for that. Obviously there have to be some safety limits but they should be minimal. Is it really that much of a problem to create a sealed arena with really thick transparent walls. This to me is what is needed to protect the audience. There is a voltage and weight limit so the strength of machines is a know property so it should be possible to design walls strong enough.
Having a sealed arena also stops the unfair advantage to flippers (winning by tossing machines over the area walls)
Dan
Quote:
Originally Posted by djburke
Building the arena may not faze our event organisers however the cost required is huge. Tests have already been carried out for spinners. even at a few hundred rpm a spinner on a heavy weight will easily send debris through a net roof. by all means try it again but i think maybe trying to promote robot combat as a sport rather than an entertainment program will make it more exciting. stop the play fights they are boring for the audience and more importantly the roboteers. I know a few that are giving up and moving to fw because they have proper combat. Bring back the drama of real combat and that will bring back the passion, emotion and intensity of an exciting spectacle... and the roboteers will enjoy it too :)
Well unfortunately Roaming Robots is just that.... An entertainment show, coupled with a competition aswell.
Our Audience is the most important thing at the moment, without them we might aswell give up. Our business has been given a second wind with it being on tv, so we need to capitalise on it.
If roboteers are giving up heavyweights to build featherweights, good luck to them.... they either are going to have the same non destructivity month in month out at regular events, or actually only fight their machine once a year.... not my idea of fun !
SMIDSY will once again be spinning to win....September 11th 2010, we will be running a test with it to see how destructive it actually is, a second robot is being built by another team to compete with it and will be tested against.
Depending on the outcome, I will then decide if this is going to work or not. I will keep you all posted, and we will try and film it.
I guarantee this is the future and others will jump on the band wagon!!
John
www.RoamingRobots.co.uk
Are you going to be understanding about extra weight if extra armour has to be applied?
If you dont mind me asking what are the sort of costs for the muts nuts arena? Fund raising possibly?
Hiya stranger....
Its not about the costs for the muts nuts arena..... its about the whole bigger picture which stops it.
At the moment RR events are made profitable by cutting all the costs down to a minimum,
1 day, 2 shows, the right venue, good PR, etc..... Without the cost saving of last summer we wouldnt be still going.
A full class 2 arena could be constructed, the problem is mostly the roof, however it can be overcome.
However its the time to build it at a venue, ( we normally setup in 6 hours ish ) cost to transport it ( we are already in 2 x 7.5t trucks ), man power to move it, forktruck hire to build it...and then theres the H & S implications if something went wrong.
Robot Wars felt the force of the old level of HW spinners and it destroyed their arena more than once, with the technology in the current FW spinners and the forces involved it wouldnt take long before the HWs were getting silly stupid fast and powerful discs.
And to combat the powerful discs, people would build more hardox boxes.
Thats why a class 2 arena wouldnt work for Roaming Robots shows in my opinion, and why i plan to build spinners to suit the arena, and not the other way round. .
John
Roaming Robots
Yup I managed it twice :rofl:Quote:
Robot Wars felt the force of the old level of HW spinners and it destroyed their arena more than once