Team Torque and Roaming Robots

[grant_ploughbot]

Safety issues - I merely co-ordinated the efforts of many people and we had others assisting us with far more knowledge and expertise than us as consultants. Are you questioning their competence too?

To be honest, anyone who was involved in that grading obviously didnt have the knowledge and expertise required.
As a side note - when our arena was graded for the first time things were done properly and in depth. We were happy about any issues pointed out so that we could correct them (the floor structure was checked, the roof stucture was tested to guarentee it was strong enough, the floor was measured for its thickness, along with all the polycarbonate and kickplates). Its just as much for our own peice of mind so that our insurance is valid!
This matter was bought up at the FRA meeting after the first inspection (I bought it up, and everyone agreed the grading was incorrect). The outcome of that meeting ended with a promise that another grading would be done, and if the arena was incomplete, or didnt meet the standards then there would be no classification and not an FRA sanctioned event, with all details removed from the forum. Everyone knows the outcome of that, and issues I pointed out at the second arena grading were just ignored! I'm not going to go any further into this on the forum, as I believe the rest should be discussed in the next FRA meeting which I hope the EO's are allowed to attend?

[Mouldy]

Having read this and having short talks with EO's in that past its pretty simple

Geoff + Jenny took something that didnt belong to them without getting instruction or permission from the owner of said item. That is a pretty good definition of theft. I take around £2000 worth of robot related bits with me to events now. Id be seriously anoyed if some of it went walkies- I think Jonno is just looking out for his mates belongings at the end of the day (The other roboteers).

Jonno and robotslive are now working together in a very positive way- The FRA in my opinion are slowing them down by taking there sweet time over things. I dont blame Jonno for taking things into his own hands. Fair play.

Karoline and grants mention of technical checks- Im pretty strict as a tech checker. Ive been to events and failed a few robots.. then ive seen other signitures on there tech forms.. I dont agree with that. I was tech checking at Rebel robots when that happened.

Geoff did fail to check a robot with lipos at Rebel robots, i know that because it was my robot and having spoke to him at the last FRA meeting he had little or no understanding of li-po batteries. I dont hold anything against him for this, Not many people do know alot about them, but it would be a good idea if the FRA could give a little training to the tech checkers that dont know anything about them. But thats a different discussion.

No i dont want someone thats been involved in a theft as president.

[craig_anto]

Just like to correct something, the Rebel Robots Arena was inspected 3 times not twice, first time there was a miscommunication/misunderstanding as to what the insepction required, we part assembled the arena and had the rest of the parts avalible for inspection, this was not what was asked of me and therefore the arena was NOT graded on the first inspection
the second inspection took place in a warehouse we had hired especially for the inspection, Grant correctly states the arena was still being contructed when Geoff, Karoline and Steve arrived, we had stuggled with lack of power as the warehouse had no power when we arrived on the sat/sunday?? the day of the inspection and we couldnt get it fixed this is not an excuse, we continued to erect the arena after everyone else had left and were given a PROVISIONAL grading of 2, with Steve coming to see the finished arena later on to give us the oppertunity to complete the arena.

the third inspection Steve gave us a list of things we would need to do to get the Grade 2 we were hoping for and said at present it was good enough for a 2F therefore fit for purpose. This was the ONLY grading we received

Upon loading the lorry we had an incident where the wind caught 3 sheets of Polycarbonate for the roof as it was being lifted onto the truck and the forks caught the polycarb and broke almost totally in half the sheets for the left side of the arena roof, this caused a problem and we needed a solution there and then and we bought some 1/4inch plywood.

Once we arrived at the venue we struggled to get the arena up on time which caused the first show to be cancelled once the arena was up we found the arena roof was pushing out the walls which could of been a major problem but it was fixed while the rest of our crew duct taped the edges of the poly and strapped the roof inplace. This problem had not arisen at the 3rd inspection because the walls of the wharehouse were supporting the weight of the arena those who went will recall we were at the full width of the warehouse.

This was spoken about and logged in the event report which I understand has been lost since the event itself.

As i recall from the tech checks I shouted at Geoff for telling Dave Moulds he didnt need to tech check 360, I told him very loudly that every robot gets tech checked this was said infront of all of the people in the pits.

On EO communication I was NEVER contacted by the FRA to discuss any issues, I had to make contact with Andy Kane to get anything moving at all.

Im not going to be organising any more Events and the arena is is being resized to meet the next project which is a robot theatre, I wont be running any competitions and will NOT be bidding for any championships although I have stated an intention too, I wont be.