Electronic assisted weapons??

[geoff]

This is what the FRA buildrules have to say on the subject...

Pay attention to 5.5.. The robot must have some sort of timer that will disarm the the autonomous funtion (Or preferably the whole robot) 4 mins. after power up.

5. Autonomous/Semi-Autonomous Robots Robots that do not require human input for one or more of their functions. (If you are bringing an autonomous robot or a robot with significant autonomous functions please contact your event organiser in advance.)

5.1. Any autonomous function of a robot, including drive and weapons, must have the capability of being remotely armed and disarmed.

5.2. While disarmed, the robot is not allowed to function in an autonomous fashion.

5.3. In addition to the required main power light, robots with autonomous functions must have an additional clearly visible light, which indicates whether or not it is in autonomous mode.

5.4. When activated the robot should have no autonomous functions enabled, and all autonomous functions should failsafe to off if there is loss of power or radio signal.

5.5. In case of damage to components that remotely disarm the robot, the Robot will automatically disarm 4 min after being armed

5.5 Seems fairly pointless given that often there are delays to the start of fights which would result in a robot stopping halfway through a fight !

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

[jamesb]

plus, so do not always want to fire the weapon right away, for example, if by the pit and slightly to one side, firing at the right time gets the other robot into the pit, firing as soon as you get there doesnt. it will be impossible to give the robot that kind of decision making ability, and keep it simple

start off with a manual weapon i suggest, or go for a completely autonomous robot?

5.1 covers this anyway, at least the way I read it. i.e. it must be cabable of beign remotely armed and disarmed, so I guess you would only remotely arm it just before the fight actually starts, not when the link is put in, If a fight is 5 mins long then I guess it means you must remotely disarm then rearm to reset the timer, so no real problem except that 4 mins probably should be re-worded to 1 minute longer that the fight duration.

[leorcc]

If you can arm and disarm the weapon remotely i dont see any use in a timer. The disarming mechanism would be the same as from the remote, so i dont see any added value to a timer. Just one more thing that can go wrong.

[geoff]

Mark, Ed, Et Al.
Valid point, bring it up at tomorrows meeting and well look at it.

Geoff.