I work in a day centre with adults with learning disabilities in Scotland, I currently do a workshop group and I am considering putting forward a plan to help the group build a couple of antweights and then later maybe an arena for the group for our next project(s) so I am currently looking into the collection of information for it, hints and tips etc, probably running 2 “teams” of 3 people each.
I’d be looking at probably building some of the “least destructive” types of antweights initially so maybe a pusher or flipper or grabber or even if you think a suggestion of something else would be ideal?
i’d at least like the group to be able to practice and learn on them once they are built without them getting destroyed in a session.
(not to mention me trying to justify pieces of high velocity flying plastic from the likes of a spinner in a non-encased arena on a risk assesment is probably not going to go down well lol)
we currently have a large (8’x8’ ish) art room table that we could use as our initial test arena, I was thinking we fence it off with 4x 4ft planks to make it a smaller arena before we then designed and build a purpose built one later down the line. i’ll be now browsing the forums for Wiring diagrams, parts lists, build logs etc to get an idea of how to get them to go about it, once we maybe have an purpose built arena we could then expand the “types” of bots that we use in it, by that time the teams will have enough experience piloting/driving the bots.
a couple of the other online forums I seem to have joined here in the UK (with the exception of this one)seemed to be dead or inactive especially in the antweight category.
so any advice would be apprciated from all of you that have vastly more experience than I do at this particular sport/hobby, the plan is for everyone involved to firstly enjoy it and secondarily work on team building, thinking about design, “themes” etc learning new skills etc in a fun way.
my own skill set is that I have qualifications in electronics and computer networks, ive also been a car/hgv mechanic a long time ago and I generally like building stuff/using tools so this seems like it could be a great focus for the group.
Much of the discourse in the modern world is on Facebook groups (bleh) and discord (double bleh) but this is by far the most active and welcoming robot combat forum.
That sounds like an amazing goal and is honestly really doable. This hobby is a lot more accessable than people think and it’s pretty straightforward.
I’m sure they’ll be posting shortly but honestly reaching out to the BBB team is your best bet as they are super experienced with workshopping robots and getting parts together for things like that.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of weapon types and that scope. Servo based weapons are super easy to implement.
Have you got access to 3d printing at all? Most robots these days rely heavily upon it and it’s a neat trick even for little mounts and widgets. Plus, there are a lot of open source files for chassis things you can just download and try to get yourselves running.
I completely back the idea of running “proper” antweights where you could bring them to a real competition at some point if desired but I also wouldn’t tie yourself down to for ease of life.
Depending on the capability of the audience, they may prove fiddly and challenging (not in the fun way!) if might be worth your time looking at adapting the “bodgebot” class Bodgebots - Bristol Bot Builders to better suit your needs.
no I dont have any access to 3d printing at the moment although its something I have always been interested in, maybe I will try and pick up something off for myself off facebook marketplace if i get the go-ahead for the group, my initial thoughts were just buying a couple of little project box’s for the likes of a raspberry pi or similar and using them as simple bots untill we get used to everything, as I dont want to throw too steep a learning curve into it that it removes the fun, that would be also for myself included.
I run robot building workshops, kids robot fighting parties and teach robot combat based STEM stuff in the South East and would be more than happy to help you get your project off the ground.
I appreciate that’s really far away from Scotland but happy to do some video calls and 3D print designs and post them for you.
You are in the right place, this forum is an incredibly good place to pick up ideas and the community is very welcoming and helpful.
Thanks for the offer of help James that is much appreciated, I got the go ahead from my boss today so the next step is talking to the group to see whether its something they’d like to do, I still have a few weeks of finishing off their current woodworking project so that will at least give me some time to get idea’s on how to approach it all and then go from there, I will definetly be back and hanging around on the forum to gather more info.