Weight increase

Beetleweight is currently set at 1.362kg for various reasons. I want to propose a weight increase to 1.5kg. I feel the weight increase will make the catagory more accessible and tempt a few more to build. It would also fall nicely in line with the antweight catagory at 150g. Beetleweight 1500g.

Well the feather weight limit change was to match the states. 12kg to 13.6kg (30 pounds)
Seemed logical and was quiet an easy transition.
Beetle weights are really more popular in the US and not matching their weight would cause some issues in traveling over. Though thats not very common.
Also numbers are quiet easy to remember if you work the other way. Feathers 13.6kg, beeltles 1.36kg

I can see rounding to 1.4 being possible for the sake of accessibility, then people can likely still lose a few grams to make it back down to 1.36kgs if need be.
Personally I'm going to still aim for 1.36kgs in case I ever do compete abroad.

Hmmmmm....I cant see any Yanks travelling to the uk. and if they did it would be easier for them to increase rather than the UK decrease.

I think it more likely we'd go out there. Plus BWs are a good size and weight to just go in your luggage.

Could always build to 1.36kgs and have 164g of additional bolt on armour you use in the UK.
Or an AntWeight clusterbot partner!

Do Canadian's mostly run Kilobots?

I think 1.5kg is fine, those who want to take there bots abroad should design around the weight limit and make it so there bot can be easily changed weight.

My advice....Just build a robot and play:D

I personally think that it should stay as it is. The increase is not enough to make a build easier as you are still stuck with pretty much the same classes/sizes of motors and batteries. The way I see it is that both Beetles and Ants are of such a small size that powerful motors with strong gearbox's are expensive as they are right in the scale of miniature models and vehicles which are expensive hobbies.

I would like to see a class for 15 Lbs machines, or half a featherweight. I think the Germans have that weight class and so do the aussies. They are heavy enough to use featherweight parts like ESC's and motors and can be paired up to fight against feathers and it would give another class that could be run in the Robochallenge arena which doesn't get out much.

Another weight category won't get the Robochallenge arena up any more often, it would just diminish the time the featherweights spend in it when it is.

I personally prefer 1.36kg, but that's borne out of a combination of mild OCD and the fact that it keeps things inline with international competitors.

That said, the FW limit went up to 13.6kg to bring it inline internationally allowing for easy inter-continental battles, but how many of us have gone to the US/Aus with our feathers, or vice-versa since then? Also makes sense to make such changes while existing robots are few and far between, so if the limit is 1.5kg, then I'll build to that :)

BonX went to Robogames 2007, came 6th if i remember correctly

Let's be honest, the 'weight amendment' for the featherweights was more driven by a personal desire by an individual(s) than a programme of harmonising weights between the US and the USA.

On the issue of 'adding 10% to a weight limit makes life easier' - I do think I need to point out that this is all totally arbitrary. Why not stop there, surley adding another 10% would make it easier still so why not go with 1.6Kg.... ? Changing the weight doesn't make any difference to how hard something is, it's a limit, and people will always try to build up to that limit. Just like the change for heavyweights from 80Kg to 100Kg, I would challenge a member of the audience to spot the difference, and I can assure you that building 'new' for 100Kg is just as tough as building 'new' for 80Kg.... yes you can do more with the weight, perhaps thicker armour than before, or a better weapon - but it doesn't get any easier to do.

Sorry if that seems like a micro-rant, but tweaking weight classes in the name of 'easier' building seems a waste of time. 1.36Kg is just a number, 1.5Kg is apparently 'easier' to build.... 1.55Kg would be easier still (apparently)... except it's not. Everything scales with the weight.

Rant over.... leave it as is :)

Ed

"Everything scales with the weight"

Not necessarily. Feathers still use drill motors after the change from 12kg to 13.6kg. Proportionally these weigh less than they previously did so you can use more weight for other stuff.

Mind you having lipo around these days helps a lot with the weight when I think back to using SLAs

You've kind of proved my point Gary... changing the weight limit hasn't caused everyone to run out and buy more powerful motors or do anything in an easier way, they've just scaled something else in line with the extra weight they've been given.

.. and likewise, as technology develops you can do more with the weight you have.

Actually fiddling with the weight limit is fairly inconsequential

Just keep the weightlimits as is. Changing the weightlimits doesn't make the game more popular, doesn't add to the excitement or makes it easier in the end.

Of course, the weightchange for the heavies from 80 to 100 kg gave a boost to the amount of eligible participants. But did it improve the total playing field? Nope, we did see more less competitive machines appear on TV, but works of art still were a rarity.

Same for the feathers. Changing from 12 to 13.6 kg, in exchange for the consumable rule in all classes didn't add a lot. Rather the opposite. Still there are people succeeding in building 16 kg rambots...

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what the weight limit is as it is virtually a new weight class in the uk and makes little difference to the parts used. 1.5 may just be a number but it is a nicer, rounder number that is practically the same and is easier to put on a poster/sign or explain to an audience member. Everyone I talk to is always confused as to why it is 13.6kgs when its such an odd number. Also it appears the decision has already been made.

Ok here is where we are at. There was a completly pointless vote and discussion on the weight increase on the beetleweight class. There has been no talk on it and no results. The FRA in my opinion are just too slow and always have been and it does my head in. Nothing ever gets done. We need a concrete limit because there is progress in this class and a lot of interest.

The weight limit at our Slaughterhouse events will be 1.5kg. If you want to build to 1.362 then feel free but we will allow up to 1.5kg