Something to think about.

What limit do the Dutch and Belgian roboteers use? (as they seem to be the main source of foreign robots fighting over here)

Regarding the issue of raising the limit or not, I think the 12.5kg option would work. It shouldnt disadvantage the 12kg robots (as its not much of a difference), while at the same time it could make all the difference when building it. Plus its logical with regard to dividing by 2 from the other weight classes, as someones already said. 13.6kg is too big an increase, even if it does entice more people into building one (not to mention making it a lot easier when I get round to building a feather).

We use FRA build rules. So were at 12Kg. I wouldnt mind an increase, because my feather is 12.4 at the moment :)
But I dont think an increase would make much of a difference in general. Id say you put the current fethers at a disatvantage. If you design a robot for 12Kg you would have made different descitions for a heavyer one.

If there were to be an increase, then I would side with Dave Young and say it should only be 0.5kg increase, 1.6 is too much. But Im all in favour of keeping it as it is now.

If it isnt broke dont fix it !

12Kg is just fine

:)GORD

As the owner of two feathersweights Id like to add my opinion. I was suprised to find out earlier this year that the Australian limit was 13.6Kg and immediately thought that the worldwide agreed limit was 12Kg - I was wrong. Personally Id like to work to 13.6Kg, its easier to build to a higher limit. Its hard to build a drive + truly destructive weapon + batteries + armour to a 12Kg limit....and the more spectacular the battles the more people will enjoy the spectacle.

Rob, whilst I agree with the biuld difficulties I also know its hard to build within the 100kg limit. So, where do we stop?

Steve, I thought that I had made it clear that many rule sets ( Battle bots and the RFL who use the Battlebots rules ) weight you in your all up fighting weight. Including expendables. ie, gas and or petrol.

A worldwide rule set is by far the most preferable route to take. It makes sence. Maybe some independant country should do a robot count in each country. The country with the most robots in a particular weight catagory should dictate the rules. Just a thought. Lets bounce that one around.

I dont mind building to American rules. Other than their terror of Co2 gas. As long as if I change my robot then everyone builds to the same rule book. Our pneumatic regulations closely follow the Battlebots rules so its no real problem. However, their Super Heavy weight league should stay over there. They are far to large and heavy.

Just my penneth worth.

Mike.

The reason us Asutralians have changed the weight limit is mainly due to the fact that some of us, including me, would like to head over seas to see what a real compitition is like. I was looking into ways of getting over to the FRA World Championships but couldnt afford a plane ticket. Also earlier this year I recieved an invatation to compete at the Robolympics and just to be fair I redirected the invatation to all Australians. Then the FRA world championship died. So we all realised that going to england, even if most of us would perfer it, wouldnt be able to give us the big compitition the $4000 would end up costing us, where as America does. So a group of builders in Sydney started pooling resorces into one robot to take to America for the Robolympics. They soon realised the this robot would need to be 1.6kg heavier then the rest of our robots and would be a one off. And what about other robots like mine. If I went over Id need to boost up the armour for the one comp. So we had a pole about wether we should raise the weight limit to the yankee standard. Most of the decisions were based on which country the builder would rather go and fight in. Also we found out now the yanks are more happy to come here and play as they wont need to change their robots. Basically were all happy now.

sounds fair enough to me! that just shows that we need some big events to start happening over here and bring in the rest of the world! Thats why i stil think that bringing all the event organisers in the uk together and put on something special! Thats what we need, and get others from abrad to start getting over here more frequently.

Sorry Mike, I skimmed your post.

I think if I had the option of using another 1.6kg, all I would do is pack a bit of extra nose armour and add another 7.2V pack. I honestly cant see many people redesigning a feather from the ground up purely because of an increase to 13.6kg.

daniel put that better than i ever could :) it was just a matter of where we wanted to go, and who may want to come here. in the end it seemed the american way was the path to follow.

i was personally not to crash hot on the idea, but then again i just let things happen and build to suit. ive just changed my bot cobra over to 6mm mild steel armour from 6mm ali armour (i think its 12.7kg total at the moment).

another reason i guess for the 13.6kg change is that it DOES make it easier for the younger and newer crowd to get involved. its hard to build a heavily armoured bot to stand up to the big spinners when your using cheap SLAs and steel to keep on a realistic younger aged budget.

but really stick with what your happy for. i guess for us it was the right idea at the right time..