i thought this would be an appropriate time to post this topic. now weve gone through almost a full season of combat, what do all you guys think should be changed/kept the same for next year?

a few things i thought where:
- letting people keep there points with a changed design. most robots have gone through a design change, totally eg sorry and i suspect it will keep happening. i reckon we let them keep there points with a different robot if they wish.
- we should go up to 13.6kg limit the event after robowars. i can forsee quite a few nsw robots adding on another 1.5kg for this event so i think it would be best for us to go up after robowars. not to sure but i think that the event after robowars is the next season for us anyway.

AND also i thought a firm ruleset that could be drafted up would be nice rather than having a vague inconspicous ruling system. e.g. some people think you have to be counted out in 10 seconds while others think 30 seconds etc..

oh yes last point i have, regarding byes. given a few peoples suggestions about having byes all the times and what have you i thought maybe it would be best to have a system whereby IF a bye situation existed a different robot would randomly be selected each time (as in take the robot that has already had a bye out of contention). this way it would prevent say robort from having a bye every event.
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yeah i agree with all of them also if possible have events spaced 3 weeks or 4 weeks with oout deviance (with 4 weeks its 12 rounds in the season with 3 weeks its 17 rounds) it just makes it easyer to keep track of events. we could swap events for special events tho so its still customiseable
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as a shadow is seen and not heard i am here
-Waddy the phoenix

personally i think 4 weeks is sorta rushed as a few peeps i have spoke with thought the upcoming event was pretty soon after the last one.

I aggree witeh the ruling aspect as i have seen many time the rules being broken eg. roobot pinning singularity for more than 30 seconds with its arm, basilisk on its top for more than 30 seconds and a few others.

Also and i have mentioned it to jeff, not having that damn trip hazard and having a flush floor leading through the door as jeff took a nasty spill last event causing a hairline rib fracture and busted radio and trying to get scrap through that door and navigate over the step was awkward and very dangerous.
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Andrew Welch, Team Unconventional Robotics

here here on the second poin about the door.
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http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

I think the biggest problem with the rules apart from what exactly they should be is how to know they have been broken and how to enforce them.

In the case where robort was pinning singularity for more than 30 seconds it was actually because all the yoinking around on the drill arm had jammed it, i was trying to release but could not, meaning they were technically just stuck together. Unfortunately this makes ruling hard as i cannot stop to explain to anyone why i have not released singularity (hehe though if you watch the video i can hear me yelling that i was trying to release but couldnt!).

I do not know what we shoudl do in a case like this, perhaps the match should be paused to find out if the rule is being broken, or maybe one of the judges needs to act as a referee, and come and tell me i must release, and i could let them know i cannot etc.

In the case of Basilisk being upsidedown for more than 30 seconds (hehe you can hear me yelling about this on the video too i am not sure if he should be counted as imobile or not. While i do not think there was controlled movement i consider Basilisks blade when upsidown to be a self righting mechanism, and as far as i can see if you are self righting, no matter how long it takes then you are not imobile.

An example would be if a robot had an arm that could extend out the top to push it back over, what if the only motor and gearbox setup with enough power was very slow? say it took 45 seconds just to flip back over? I know if this was my only self righting option then i would prefer it to nothing, but does it count as controlled movement?

Basilisk bouncing around on its spinning bar is a little different, as while it is the self rigther, and eventually it did self right without hitting anyhting else, the self righting is not a known timeframe, it could get back over right away or it could take 2 minutes. I think that after looking at how Basilisk did self right there is a few mods nick could make that would help it self right more easily but the question is does this sort of unknown lenght of time self righter count as imobile?

I see this as being less of a problem if Basilisk can be made to self right more qucikly and predictably, until then we will just have to see how it goes. Also perhaps i would be more in favour of Basilisk being imobile if after being upsidedown for more than 30 seconds he had flipped back and i had lost the match, but as it worked out it just meant lots more fun and carnage for everyone!

Anyway what does everyone think about these issues?

that last one was a bit of a monster post hehe
what i wanted to add was about the times between events. Personally i think events every 4 weeks is good, as it gives us lots of chances to battle, but i can see how it can be a bit rushed to get everyhting done in time. For me everytime i work on robort is rushed, because of uni assignments this week i still have not got back to robort, tomorrow is my day for repair lucky i have plenty of tie wire and gaffa tape!

ok the only new rule i think should be added is that nick should have a pole sticking up from the middle of the spinning bar... that would make it so much faster
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as a shadow is seen and not heard i am here
-Waddy the phoenix

The main problem with adjudicating rules is that no one particular person has the call on decisions. If an infringement is detected no one is in charge to call it. At the moment the rules are enforced when it comes to voting.

However there are problems with having a judge or judges. Some people don't like it when a small number of people have control of the decisions and they disagree with them. If its a collective decision then it they won't be so quick to blame.

Good topic to raise Glen. I was going to raise the issue of roster's and other organisation that should be done before next season.

What I've come up with are some Powerpoint documents that could be used at the event on a PC. Once the data is input, just view the slide to see who's fighting.

Importantly there are rosters for 6-12 robots, which would be the range of robots at the present time allowing a few additions etc. Unfortunatetly they are too big to put up here so I might have to adjust the quality of them a little. OR put them up somewhere else. Either way i'll put them up for all the NSW people to view and decide if we want to use them or not. I made them up after I heard a few comments about having to make rosters on the fly. This will provide fixed fights.

I would bring these points up tomorrow but I won't be there, so have fun. But another thing is what we want with the sport in our area. As far as newbies, coverage, public etc. I think a definite idea of where we are going will be useful in coming up with ideas to fulfill these objectives.

Since I won't be there, my personal view is that we should try and avoid public events. But please discuss this in the morning.

Thanks

ok well i believe we had this discussion once before... for instance when i was more noobish i came up with an idea to maby have a few matches for a few days at blacktown without any spinners and basically construction fences with plastic sheating for arena. we came to the conclusion that without a "club house" and a secretary with a manual on modern bot construction we would be swamped by calls that we couldent answer and there fore we would be loosing potentiol builders so untill such a time that we maby get a few seasons under our belts and maby a constant meating place other than jeffs back yard (altho it has been a great asset so far) it would be detrimental to the sport...

or atleast thats what i got from chrisjon after that event that seems oh so long ago.
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as a shadow is seen and not heard i am here
-Waddy the phoenix

Well on todays event results i thnk we need to rebuild the arena a little bit. Vhris mentined today he had that stele computer flooring. Whats happening exactly with putting that in etc. Also jeff mentioned that he could maybe upgrade the lexan to 9mm through work. NOt being a pushy bastard but just asking in general.

Remove taht triphazard.

For refbot to be working and have that wireless camera jeff bought in its head.
That would be cooool

For rules to be enforced when broken and for us to know what the rules are.

eg. a list of the rules for jeffs event and what needs to be done etc while in a match. How long u have to wait until one is immobilised, the rules on multiple robots. For some oen at the event during a match to be the voice/ref to keep it fair and penalties for broken rules.

Also maybe we check with what the airplane mob loacally are doing and when they have meets on.
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Andrew Welch, Team Unconventional Robotics

hmmmm we definatly need some concreat soccer rules tho cause it was almost a pusshy mele with a ball and 2 goals included still fun tho
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as a shadow is seen and not heard i am here
-Waddy the phoenix

there was a ball??
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

just a few ideas mitch and i came with regarding a non battle robo-olympic type day .......
SUMO... draw a circle in the arena push and shove 1st over the line looses ,best of three wins the round, 1 minute per round
TUG O WAR.... bot vs bot a line in the middle a rope and the rest is odvious
POWER DRAG ...which bot can drag the heaviest weight ,from one end of the arena to the other in th best time ???
WEIGHT LIFTING .....run like a real weight lifting competition ...the one that can drag the most weight total both pushing and pulling wins the event ...but remember 3 attempts and your out ,so choose a weight you know you can handle
ROBOT SOCCER .....a one on one event
ROBOT [TEAMS] SOCCER..... a 2vs2 event

what i suggest is see how you can modify your robot ,so it can handle these types of events .......OR build a 100% power bot especially designed for muscle ......
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That's an excellent idea. what weight should we make these competitions? to make it cheaper and easier for people, I suggest making most of these events featherweights.

Another idea would be to link all the events into an Iron Man series (err, Iron Bot? ) with a points system seperate from the main comabt points.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

meh iron= flimzy how bout calling it Ti bot championships... lol
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as a shadow is seen and not heard i am here
-Waddy the phoenix