10th to 12th of January 2013 -Mechatrons RoD Dublin, Ireland

[mechatrons]

Mechatrons is happy to announce that we will be presenting Robots of Destruction again in Dublin.

We are still ironing out the details regarding our budget but we will have budget to fund a small number of teams to travel over from the UK. Only heavyweights and mechs/boxers required i.e. no featherweights. As always, priority will be given to teams with multiple bots. We may be able to subsidise some more teams who don't make the first list. As always, if you can fund yourself or get sponsorship, then you are more than welcome to come and play.

We are always looking for something new to add to the show so if you have anything interesting let me know.

You must fill out at least two forms. The first is for the Team information and the second for is to be filled out for each robot you are bringing.

Teams fill out Part 1 of the application here:
http://goo.gl/HuQHa

And part2 for each bot you are bringing here:
http://goo.gl/TXdYB

Hope to see you there!
Pete

[swanaldo]

Applied again but I won't hold my breath.

[mechatrons]

One of the biggest costs for us is the ferry tickets. A suggestion has been that if someone has a big truck that can take all the robots and someone has a bus that can take all the roboteers then we could bring over more teams.

Any offers? or other suggestions?

[mightymouse]

Hire a coach and get the robots in the hold of the bus..............

Trev

[PJ-27]

And since nearly all HWs are triangle shaped they'll stack nicely!

[leorcc]

Hire a coach and get the robots in the hold of the bus..............

Trev

It's been done before.

[teamstorm]

I pointed this out to BT last year it would make far more sense to ship the robots in a small van that pay everyone a ferry ticket to drive over.

Far more efficient and people can just take a cheap Ryanair flight over instead

I would be more than happy to coordinate such a thing if it could enable an event that allowed more (and different) teams to attend.

Ed

[mechatrons]

A small van wouldn't cut it. Nor will just the hull of a coach. We regularly have a few teams that fill vans full of robots. For example, you wont get the likes of the boxers, daleks or skelly in the hull of a coach.

But I am happy to be proven wrong. If someone can prove they can do it, send me a quote and I'll be happy to hammer it out with you.

[teamstorm]

Small is a relative term

Have some experience of this; having arranged for all the UK teams to attend Dutch Robot Games in a coach (10 heavyweights stowed down below plus tools).

I'll have a look into it tomorrow !

[teamstorm]

Done some basic maths on this.

Current model (pay everyone to get there themselves individually)

• Return Ferry, 3 people in a car with £100 allowance for fuel = £328 per team
  
  Thus cost for say 8 teams = £2624

Proposed Model (People get robots/tools etc to a central location and they are shipped in van)

• Return Ferry, 2 people in a large van with trailer and £200 allowance for fuel = £540
  
  3 x Return Ryanair flights UK - DUB = £107 for 3 people return
  
  Thus cost for 8 teams = £1396

That's a saving of £1228 - ie almost half the cost per team.

That saving could be used to fund more teams, and go towards additional hotel costs. Even it involved 2 vans, it looks like it would still cost in, having seen how the Dalek/Skelly/Boxers turn up to Robots Live events, there is plenty of scope for some more efficient packing to be done !

Clearly we don't know the exact detail of the business model/cost model being used, but being able to achieve such a significant saving through efficiency just using these rough order of magnitude numbers, one would expect it to easily allow the event to be opened up to a wider number of teams. This results in happy sponsors, and happy roboteers.

The organisers BT have often commented that every year the show seems to be the same, and aren't there any different robots running - this model would allow some additional different teams to take part.

Thoughts and ideas - people interested ?