Hello robotiers. I'm a UNSW Mechatronics engineer in my 2nd year of study. Have spent a fair amount of time in the hacker community doing electronics and various builds for hobby and university so I have a reasonable amount of knowledge (though a newbie in RC). Always watched robotwars and was thinking about getting into it. My main question is before I invest into designing and building anything, how active is the robowars community here in Sydney? I would be much more inclined to join the community if there was say a local space with experienced builders and where regular tournaments are held so my robot is being put to good use regularly. However from my light browsing of the forums it seems that this doesn't exist at least in Sydney and competing in tournaments would involve a lot of travel, which I don't really have the funds or time to do (please prove me wrong cause that would be great). One other thing is where might I begin (I guess this is very dependent on what tournaments I would have access to in Sydney), featherweight or antweight, sportsman?
Cheers,
Daniel.
Sat Sep 12, 2015 2:25 pm
Nick Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW
Hi Daniel & welcome to the forum.
We used to to do up to eight events a year but as the robots got more destructive, we gradually cut back due to the effort & cost. We lost access to the arena a few years ago so we mostly go to the Queensland events or their portable arena comes down here one or twice a year.
We still have a beetleweight arena and we really should start having beetle events regularly again. There are not many active beetles in Sydney but as they are cheap and easier to build than featherweights, they are a possible starting point for you.
We should probably also start having more regular sportsman events as they only need a minimal arena.
Question to the other Sydney builders: why don't we have more small events? We seem to have more than enough bots for a relaxed Sportsman event & BBQ... _________________ Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion
Sat Sep 12, 2015 2:37 pm
Daniel78310
Joined: 11 Sep 2015
Posts: 2
That really is a shame that the community in Sydney is not so active. I'm sure there would be many builders with bots put away waiting to be used. Don't think I'd be prepared to travel to Queensland for tournaments however if a scene ever started up in Sydney even just beetle weight robots as a starting point, I would be on board. I've even considered getting the university maker group I'm a part of to start doing small robowars battles, but not sure how that would go down with OHS requirements of the university.
Sat Sep 12, 2015 2:47 pm
Jaemus Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 01 Apr 2009
Posts: 2674
Location: NSW
Welcome Daniel
I second Nick's suggestion we do more local beetle events _________________ <Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls
I think more regular events would be great but the reality is that a lot of people have other commitments which limits their availability/motivation to attend something small. People tend to take the big public events more seriously which is why we have started moving towards them but even then I think it's limited to 1-2 a year otherwise people really start to burn out.
The smaller classes beetles and ants make this easier as it can be a one night build day before but you really need about 8 of them to make it a good event.
Don't let travelling dissuade you too much we all used to travel down to Melb for big events and Sydney occasionally too. QLD is a bit of a hike but with flights so cheap these days it's much less of a problem than it used to be. I always tie it in with a bit of a holiday or in nationals case visiting of family. (For robowars vivid I flew my brother down return for $75 but he did have to pay $50 for luggage)
There will likely be more events in Sydney in the future so best thing you can do is get building and have something ready.
Last edited by marto on Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:27 am; edited 1 time in total
Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:24 am
Knightrous Site Admin
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 8511
Location: NSW
If people are keen after nationals (and not burnt out), I can arrange a BW event or two before the year is out. _________________ https://www.halfdonethings.com/
Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:59 am
Valen Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney
shredder is sitting in a tub good to go. _________________ Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets
Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:07 am
andrew
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 3110
Location: Castle Hill, Sydney. N.S.W
ive got antweight good to go and could possible slap a beetle together
Marcs got a beetle half done also so...... _________________ Andrew Welch, Team Unconventional Robotics
Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:46 am
Nick Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 11802
Location: Sydney, NSW
And I have most of the parts for a Mini-Mangle _________________ Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion
Yes, I'm sure I can slap something together (Hammerhead is done, tho) _________________ <Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls
Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:02 pm
MoonSet416
Joined: 25 Sep 2016
Posts: 436
Location: Sydney
What a shame I overlooked this thread...
I am a first-year Mechatronics student at UNSW, and I look forward to finding a team to do combots.
Sun Sep 25, 2016 2:15 pm
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