Spinners and arena walls

It looks like 12mm poly walls still isnt enough to cater for spinners!

http://www.suicidebots.com/2007/05/19/buggerhttp://www.suicidebots.com/2007/05/19/bugger

Heres the full report for anyone whos interested... http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=THERFL&msg=4452.1http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/...RFL&msg=4452.1

Thats scary.

The ensuing collision broke an eight inch piece of Brutalities blade off and sent it into the 1/2 inch thick arena wall right in front of the frequency pin board

Wouldnt wanna be in line with that!

The bot hit the steel crossbar, which bent down, compressing the lexan vertically, which shattered it.

wouldnt it be good to have steel mesh infront of the polycarb so you can still see through and also stop big bits

All that needs revising is how the polycarb is mounted. Just need to prevent mounting stresses and then the polycarb should do its horizontal impact absorption job fine.

But is 12mm good enough for featherweight arenas without spinners?

Video of fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKRsMg2Ccwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKRsMg2Ccw

It looked as if the cutter was held on by only a few bolts. If it was, then I am not surprised it came loose with those nocks.

Awesome fight though.

It wasnt bolts that came off I dont think Gary - as I understand it the solid blade snapped.

Theres few MAJOR differences between that arena and what the FRA have set for safety guidlines for the UK arenas. The FRA have set a 1m seperation zone which often helps lowering the impact of debris on the outer screens. Also, the method that the polycarbonate is mounted in those pictures is very very bad. The polycarb has aboslubtly no flex, and so instead of obsorbing the impact it just shatters. This is the exact reason that most the known UK arenas have ALOT of flex over a very large area.

The DRG arena polycarbonate screen isnt even bolted at all. The 12mm thick PC is sandwiched between 2 steel Lprofiles, with a foam protection to avoid scratching and chafing.The whole sheet can flex and move, but even the worst we can do wont push the sheet out of the frame.


And, of course, we dont have such insane spinners as our US fellow roboteers. (oeps, forgettting some of the monsters ,like Supernova or Scorpion)

Holy (bleep)! Id be shaking if those spinners crept into my room at night!

Arent there stronger plastics than Lexan (that are clear, obviously) ?

Nope

Shame. :sad:

Maybe they could make multiple layers of 1cm thick Lexan that can be placed 5cm apart...

Unless its too expensive.

that would be exceptionally expensive plus it would over complicate the arena construction before an event

Bugger. :lame:

Any other ideas?

do as above stated by myself and mario. Have lots of FLEX!!!!
Im not at all suprised that polycarb shattered

or use transparent aluminum.....



(any trekkie will get that one)

lol, that would do it :)

James, youre going to laugh, but atm they are working on transparant aluminium.
Mother nature has shown the way. Saphire.

Somehow I have a feeling it will take a little bit of time before we see it on arena walls :)

I assume they are developing it in San Fransisco.

I think its being developed for whale tanks or something ;)

by Plexicorp, allthough if you want some you have to talk into the mouse.

I don€™t know much about the qualities of poly but 2 ideas come to mind
1/ the poly could be hung from the top, on cables like an old pub sign, with a tether at the bottom. This way big lumps would make the poly swing and dissipate some of the energy. The plates could overlap!
2/ could you fit in front of the poly between the robot and the poly a white catch net I remember these being fitted to some public buildings when the IRA were bombing, they were weighted at the bottom in the event of an explosion they would stop pieces of glass cutting people in the building.
I hope this may help.

Both XFM and Robots Live employ the hanging method of mounting polcarb. Roaming robots also have an amount of flex in the polycarb to absorb impacts.

The net idea is fine as long as it doesnt impede the audiences view.

When I was at the Aylesbury meeting the poly was held on the sides supported by posts not the top. But this may not be normal perhaps this is only for that show.
With regards to the net curtains I was thinking about fine fishing net nylon with holes about 6mm or so any parts smaller the poly would stop anyway (the blade that broke the poly was several cm long) with regards to visibility it€™s the old one-way mirror trick if the light is stronger inside than the light outside the arena then the curtain will be quite see-through. There would have to be a gap of about 800mm between the curtain and the poly to give room for the flying bits to slow down before it hits the poly. Perhaps we need to do some tests.

Craig,

As ed says, the poly on the Robots Live arena hangs from a trussing frame, see pic http://www.robotslive.co.uk/arena_burgs1.jpghttp://www.robotslive.co.uk/arena_burgs1.jpg

Its hard to tell in the photo, but each sheet of poly has two steel black hucks that hang from the trussing.

Thanks David
My suspicions were correct the Aylesbury screens were not the norm thanks for clarifying this. Do you think the idea of catch nets would work? do you know if anyone has tried this before?

The arena at Aylesbury was the Roaming Robots arena, i wasnt at the event so im not sure what set up was used.

Both robots live and roaming robots use netting for roofs aswel.

Craig - wrong arena.

The Roaming Robots arena holds each polycarbonate sheet at either side and leaves the top unsupported (I believe the roof is cable-tied to the polycarbonate).

Robots Live hang the polycarbonate with primary support from the trussing structure.

Ed
http://www.teamstorm.comhttp://www.teamstorm.com

Thanks Ed ive got it now
Roaming robots Supported on the side.
Robots live hung from the top.
The question begs what one do you think works better from a safety (bits wont get through) point of view?

Craig,


The Aylesbury version of the RR arena was not the norm. Correct on this instance, the polycarb was fixed around the marquee, and not our normal roof structure.

The first RR arena I built, the polycarb was bolted all the way round, not only did it give us a long winded setup time but gave problems as the fixings were so rigidly mounted they ended up cracking.

With the lastest arena, the makrolon is hung on the posts down the sides, a total of 6 brackets for each sheet hanging from each.

The roof structure which fits into the legs holds the whole thing together.

The polycarb is given plently of flex so robots hitting it do not stress the fixings. This has worked very well over the last two years of events.

John
http://www.RoamingRobots.co.ukwww.RoamingRobots.co.uk

If the polycarb has enough flex both will do the job. I think i would prefer suspended from the top though. less chance of the polycarb falling over.