Evening,
I've been wondering if someone was able to prove at tech check that the tip speed of a weapon's spinning element could not exceed 500rpm, would they be able to use it at a traditionally non-spinner event?
cheers
dan
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Evening,
I've been wondering if someone was able to prove at tech check that the tip speed of a weapon's spinning element could not exceed 500rpm, would they be able to use it at a traditionally non-spinner event?
cheers
dan
I have wondered that to. Something like a rotary flipper rather than a cutting disc.
E.g. a speed 900 geared down until it was doing say 250 rpm; lots of torque.
I don't think any event organiser without a secure roof on their arena would take the risk. Even a relately low speed spinner could throw a lot of shrapnel. As much as an audience love the action, they wouldn't like to be part of it!
You say that, but both EO's now have a robot with a spinner running in their arenas (Matilda and now Goliath). I don't know what speeds they are doing but as you said, potential risk at any reasonable RPM.Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
Weve both done the same thing,
Both Added a disc to a house robot which we have built to a certain spec, which we are comfortable. Both discs are light / slow speed so there is no risk of shrapnel, just merely there for visual effect than damage.
Could competitors build spinners to those same specifications? Mass, speed, diameter?
Or the total of those as Force in Newtons?
[You can get that from the rotational moment of inertia, combined with the speed and max diameter cant you?]
Not for me, we do it because its our show, house robots aren't built to rules just like the old days.
We are both very experienced engineers and we know what we can and cant achieve in a safe mannor.
its ok allowing someone to build something but if something fails its our heads on the line.
I want to be in complete control of whats happening in my arena.
John
Yeah, I can understand that!
With the new Robotwars taking shape, are their any plans to up-spec the arena. Be it this year or 5 years down the line?
The answer is yes, there are plans and designs in place for an upgrade to get spinners back in the future, its what we all want, but the only real way that happens is if its being filmed for TV. :proud:
John
Robot Wars
Watching with interest as that 30kg hardox disc has been sitting in my shed gathering rust.......
just a thought, could your disk be used and limited to 499 rpm so its not fast enough to be classed as a spinner :?:
if so then could it inflict any damage at that low speed :?:
From what I understand, a spinner has to breach 2 of 3 regulations the count as a spinner:
Exceeding 20% of the robots weight
Exceeding 500rpm
Exceeding 24 (might be cm, can't remember) in diameter.
Gary's disc would breach at least 2 as it stands (if its the disc I'm thinking of) even if he did turn the speed down.
And the rule which is more important than all.
An EO has the final say what goes in his arena ! :-)
ATM I don't think either HR spinner exceeds 500rpm or 20% of its weight (although considering Goliath's size it would have to be massive to be anywhere close to 20%.). I know its the EO's arena, but since Jonno is on here, would you allow spinners that breached the speed restriction but not the other 2? The speed is the big factor to me, and I was curious as to what we can get away with :).
As I said before, currently I wouldn't allow spinners at all.
At one point if you remember I wanted to bring them back, we did a test with smidsy.
Too much going on with the rebrand, there is an avenue to get them back safely .. But I don't have time to deal with it at the moment.
Maybe in the summer when things quieten down we can explore it.
It would take a couple of people with some very well built machines to start exploring it.
It still comes down to whether the EOs are prepared to take the risk at the end of the day, and that's not just related to whether it adheres to those 2-out-of-3 regulations, but also to the build quality and integrity of the weapon. I would normally be gently poking and prodding about the possibility of running low-KE spinners at events but I'm looking at it more now from an EO perspective due to the Scot-Bots stuff.
A team such as Big Nipper could make a nice low-KE spinner satisfying those regulations and, as roboteers, we know due to the quality of their engineering it would be fine. At the same time, a rookie team could come in and also make a nice low-KE spinner meeting the regs but the build quality and integrity is more of an unknown as they're new. Either way, the EO can't be 100% sure of the safety of both teams' weapons so unless the arena can contain any potential failures, it's too much of a risk to let them run. If they did, and something happened, it cold potentially invalidate the event grading and, in turn, invalidate any chance they have of their public liability insurance covering costs.
EDIT: What John said :P
Ah yeah I remember the smidsy test.
Fair enough, good to know, thanks for the answer :)
The rpm, mass and diameter was to make eos aware of potentially very dangerous spinners not what defines a spinner! It would be a bold person to suggest any spinner can be run in a netted roof. It worrys me seeing some flippers in net roof as they could easily send bolts through it.
Yes it is down to the EO what runs in their arena but that ldoesnt change what is safe and what is not. It just means if something does go wrong, and its likely it would as it has in the past, the EO would have a lot of explaining to do as its well known not to be safe.
Out of interest- what was the smidsy test? :)
Jonno what about if ripper was given immunity from the disc :-D
Yeah immunity is fine !! :-)
We ran fw spinners in netted roofs for years and it was only when discs started getting to silly speeds and people got worried. Never had an issue.
The smidsy test was a test we ran in between two shows where we had two low powered spinners fighting, there was 0 chance of danger, but it wasn't exciting !!
As an EO I'm bothered about entertainment and progression, disc being a risk, and that risk has to be minimal but with maximum impact on the show.
The only way to have them, and for them to be worth it is to ban hardox, reduce the armour and allow robots to be damaged easily !!
??? I don't know of any vertical fw spinner since ive been in the sport that couldn't put something through a net roof. Only the very worst but certainly a large majority would easily put shrapnel through net.
well we dont need to go through yet another public debate about spinners, we ran them, didnt kill anyone, when we felt it was getting dangerous we stopped.
Maybe one day they will come back in some form. It might just be the same day i annouce a Tv deal, and robot wars series 8, you just never know !
Mr Robotwars telling us what we can and cannot debate about now....For a minute there i thought it was a forum. Next you will be telling everyone they have to sign contracts to attend Robotwars like Mentorn did. But then I dont think personally it will ever be back on TV.
Was just saying we dont need to turn this into a debate about what we did before nd if it was safe, , we are talking about the future, and the possibility of bringing them back in some form in RW and RL.
Get a disc to spin slowly enough it doesnt carry any safety risks.
Im trying to be positive here not negative and it doesnt need to turn into vendetor!