Are pyrotechnics allowed?

I'm thinking, for box ejection, one of those blanks used in nail guns. They are very consistent, so once you have the distance figure out, bang, and it's in the bucket. You'd need to use a pusher plate to keep from damaging the box is all.

So the boxes are only a 4" cube? How thick are the walls? Any seams on the side that will be 'up'?

The robots cannot be dangerous. So explosives would probably be ruled out. Also, we will be going through many matches (probably 10 or more) so think about the cost involved with having so many pyrotechnics... we have a generous budget of £75 from Student Robotics plus any change we find in our pockets.

I'm not sure on the cubes; I'll get exact measurements later. But I think it would be safe to say <5mm thick. No idea on seams.

 

Hi, I'm Alistair from SR! Just dropping by to make sure you know: we are always watching.

Please don't either explode our arena or fill it with crossbow bolts. They're rather dangerous and we also don't want our very expensive cardboard boxes damaged!

As a general rule, I'd highly recommend sticking to something simple rather than these spectacular pyrotechnical displays.

If you're looking for inspiration, the main SR forums are an excellent place to look!

-Alistair

 

Curious. There has never been a comment from an organizing committee on a competition discussion here in AAC as far as I can remember.

Maybe AAC is making a name for itself as a premiere web tutoring site. Or someone wants to interfere with the tutoring service itself. Please keep in mind the fact of internet anonymity.

 

Hi, I'm Alistair from SR! Just dropping by to make sure you know: we are always watching.

Please don't either explode our arena or fill it with crossbow bolts. They're rather dangerous and we also don't want our very expensive cardboard boxes damaged!

As a general rule, I'd highly recommend sticking to something simple rather than these spectacular pyrotechnical displays.

If you're looking for inspiration, the main SR forums are an excellent place to look!

-Alistair

Aww, you take all the fun out of creativity!

Thanks for stopping by, stick around a bit, you'll understand the craziness underneath and it will all make sense.

 

Thanks for your input Alistair.

Unfortunately I am not able to log into the forums, as I have not been given a username/password nor is there anywhere to register...?

 

I know what you mean, we had the same problem with our arena. We had just painted it too!

I think the flame thrower is obvious, but the big spinning saw blade on the front of the other may not be.

 

Are all sides of the boxes sealed?

 

Hi-

Unfortunately I am not able to log into the forums, as I have not been given a username/password nor is there anywhere to register...?

Drop an email to <snip> and somebody'll help you out, or speak to your SR mentor (Andy Busse I believe).

I don't mean to zap your creativity, it's great that you're coming up with these ideas: however, I'm the guy ostensibly in charge of running the competition day itself and I would very much like everyone to leave the competition with the same number of limbs as when they entered.

The idea from earlier in this thread of suction is a good one (I believe at least one other team has had the same idea) - I'd recommend you prototype various different mechanisms as simply as possible (maybe give a simple grabber a shot too) and make your decisions based on that.

Curious. There has never been a comment from an organizing committee on a competition discussion here in AAC as far as I can remember.

Pleased to have been the first.

-Alistair

 

I think you need to look at the calculations again, the box isn't going to be accelerating for 5m, and if it was, it would already be at the target.
If the box is low density then air friction will have a large effect.

 

I think you need to look at the calculations again, the box isn't going to be accelerating for 5m, and if it was, it would already be at the target.
If the box is low density then air friction will have a large effect.

Yes this is what my physics teacher told me.

I did update my calculations to account for acceleration.

Air friction though hasn't yet been accounted for.

Still, I have potentially 100-180 psi I can put into a cola bottle (apparently they can take up to 180 psi without rupture), so one way or another, the box is going to fly .

 

@alynn

I have removed your e-mail from your post. Spambots are known to harvest the site for exposed e-mail addresses. You can enter your mail or a non-commercial web-page in your profile.

 

We had some good success today; we got the first movement from our robot. Still haven't got sample boxes yet, though...