if an arena cannot be relied upon 100% to safely contain a robot, out of control or otherwise, then that robot should be put back in the car before it even sees its link.
In my humble opinion.
Yes, the Battlebox had 24mm Lexan (two layers of 12mm) around the bottom of the battlebox.
The FRA are in the process of reviewing all UK arenas in the hope of making them all (including XFMs) safer for the future in light of events in 2006 so hopefully the safety barrier can be metaphorically raised high still.
Ed
http://www.teasmtorm.comhttp://www.teasmtorm.com
I guess all arenas have weak points. In Battlebots case it is the wall.(which Shark Byte shredded quite nicely)
no arena is safe...
by the way, lousy driving of death drum cause him to get his robot destroyed.
In Battlebots case it was also the fact that you were in the arena with your robot to arm up. Not only that but the other guy is arming up at the same time!! Youve got to keep one eye on your own robot in case it unexpectedly gets out of hand - youre also got to keep the other eye on the other robot as well!
If one did get out of hand in there, where could you run to anyway? At least with our rules arming up is done over the side wall but there is still space between the edge of the arena and the lexan screens to jump out of harms way - in the Battlebox none of that existed!
Safe arenas can be made. but its not just haveing meter thick polycarbonate. its the quality of the arena construction thats important. It takes along time and expirence to iron out all the weak points just like our robots. weve upgraded our arena over a period of around 3 years....... now its perfectlol nothing is perfect but you can get close. I dont think the potential of what robots can do has been realized still :sad: even with featherweights.
Completely agree with James B.
Safe is relative, you always get some idiot who makes things unsafe, for themselves mainly.
I agree with both JB as far as to the potential of FWs & Ed with his some idiot theory. I would rather err on the side Sods/Murphys Law every time even if that means reacting to stop a possible hazardous situation from occurring or over-engineering to ensure that it wont happen. Theres another old saying that prevention is better than cure but its an ever changing world and its something that should always be subject to review at any time.
i priced up an arena build recently for a hypothetical event.
The brief - a heavyyweight world championships able to run anything that shows up
the screens spec - 50mm polycarb to 1 meter, 25mm above that, 12mm roof, which excludes the 20mm thick steel kick plates and plenty more i wont go into.
The event is not happening this year, but I refused to go any thinner on anything with that specific run anything brief. My attitude being, if the people commissioning an arena are not willing to invest in the arena spec, I cannot and will not put my approval on it to run anything
Thats my opinion, if the arena is perfectly safe for all robots but one, that one doesnt run. If it is safe for no robots to run, they dont. You can guarantee an arena spec that is up to the job, but then if some muppet is in the arena arming his robot with another ready to go behind him, whats the point?
No.... this is not the woodlands arena spec, before anyone asks.
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