Building a featherweight arena...

[BrentwoodSchoolRoboteers]

Hi all, I am Team Expulsion's teacher and am looking to get the younger year groups involved in robotics within school. My current plan is to buy some cheap speed controllers, some 1000rpm motors and a variety of servos and brushless motors in order for them to design and build their own featherweights.

They would be using acrylic as the main material for their robots - the reasoning being that it will be easier to contain and also they will break in a spectacular fashion!

I am looking to build an 8x4x2ft arena in my classroom but am now looking at polycarbonate sheeting and wondering how to calculate a thickness required. With so many variables I am unsure where to start. Does anyone have any suggestions? Obviously cost is an issue so thinner is better whilst still maintaining failsafe safety.

Quite happy to have them all wearing goggles as well as having the polycarbonate if deemed sensible.

Thanks!

Thomas

[R9000]

If the polycarb around the arena fails, I'd think safety goggles would be the least of your worries. Honestly it sounds like you're aiming for sort of low-spec Featherweights - acrylic is great to work with and laser cut, but it's very brittle to be using for a Featherweight, as far as I know. How many robots were you thinking of building? If it's more than two or three, things could start getting costly. If you're just looking to get the kids enthused with robotics I'd recommend Antweights. Cheaper, less dangerous and more manageable, and that means your arena will be cheaper too. Polycarb is certainly not cheap, and having enough to enclose that arena at a thickness you'd need for Featherweights could really cost you.
If you're still set on Featherweights though, could you give more details on what components you were hoping to use? Like maybe an eBay link or something to give an idea of what you're hoping to work with. Remember if you're doing Featherweights, those drive motors will have to drag 13.6kg around.

[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

I believe he meant Beetleweights (1.5kg) based on his mentioning of 1000rpm motors and the size of the arena.

[Eventorizon]

Catagories are: Ants - 150g, Beetles 1.5kg, Feathers 13.6kg

If you never plan to build 'true' Beetles and only go with acrylic/plastic chassis and limit what students can use for motors then I'd look at 5mm Poly for the walls and roof.

We built our own arena for Beetle Fights and Featherweight Demo's which is all 40x40x3mm Mild steel angle with 10mm polycarbonate walls and a 5mm Polycarbonate roof. At 2m x 2m its fairly big but you wouldn't want to go any smaller for BW combat.

Beetleweight arena at National STEM centre.jpg

That is the arena set up at the York STEM centre.

[RogueTwoRobots]

If you're on a budget, see if you can find any bus stop refurbishing/repair companies near you. They may be able to supply you with used 5mm polycarb panels, though obviously the quality of them can vary. Got a large supply of these from another roboteer a few years ago who knew a neighbouring company, gave us plenty for a small-walled featherweight arena, and the panels would be an ideal size for a beetleweight scale arena.

[BrentwoodSchoolRoboteers]

Thanks for the replies so far.

The important thing to note is that the weapons will be made from plastic so if anything does come flying off it is only going to be shards of 3mm acrylic.

These are the things I was looking at:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142212928164

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252691100748

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201840681700?var=501867119105

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331367359349

You are right actually - I have not paid much attention to the weight because for the purpose of what we are doing it doesn't need to fit a specific category. I guess 1.5kg sounds about right. Possibly lighter.

I had figured that a shard of 3mm acrylic could not penetrate a piece of 3mm polycarbonate but I may be wrong here. The bus company idea is great by the way.