Maxamuslead, That video is quite impressive!
Maxamuslead, That video is quite impressive!
Hi Alun. Apart from the latest series of Robot Wars it has been generally accepted rule among the Combat Robot community that there is absolutely no entanglement. There was a controversy in the 2015 Battlebots when one team used a net in a fight because they had noticed that there wasn't a "no entanglement" rule but nobody else noticed (although that could have just been TV drama). So I'm afraid even if you found some way that passed through the rules the loophole would probably be closed pretty quickly.
Having said that however it has got me thinking. If you were to use something like a long HDPE rod with steel hooks attached & jammed it into a spinner's drive mechanism with the intention of either grabbing & stopping the chain/belt would that count as an entanglement device (assuming the chain didn't break)?
I've moaned about this for years. People can build as big a spinner as they like, but you're not allowed to effectively defend against it. I think it's so the Event Organisers can put on a good show. "Come and see these robots get ripped limb from limb". All you'd have to do in reality is duct tape a bit of duvet cover or nylon rope to the front of your wedge and aim at a spinner. Rather than snag you need to bind the blade at the axle. They won't allow it because it's boring to watch.
I dispute not being able to effectively defend against spinners, in my 5 years of building I’ve never taken substantial damage from a spinner, even having fought some of the most damaging ones in each class (barring heavyweights).
Defending against spinners really isn’t as difficult as a lot of people seem to make out. That said, I wouldn’t mind seeing more clever ways of entanglement, but nets etc would be painfully boring and quite unsporting to be honest.
There are multiple reasons why entanglement is generally prohibited, it’s not just to “put on a good showâ€. Think about the power behind a modern day spinner, now imagine that spinner coming to an immediate and violent stop whilst still being powered. That cause cause the weapon motor or esc to burn out or it could cause a lipo fire due to too high a current draw. I’ve had my spinners entangled, in fact it happened at Burgess this weekend when my drum bot sucked up a “decorative†feather and it stopped the weapon in it’s tracks, whilst wrapping itself around the weapon motor.
I very, very rarely “tear something limb from limb†with a spinner, a modern robot with modern armour can take the hits a spinner can dish out, if your robot can’t take it, build stronger but entanglement is just unsporting.
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