Mech Warfare 2015

[sthmck]

Greetings all!
I know I have been very absent on these forums for a while now, (life has a way of taking you down interesting paths) but I am back in action. For those of you who don't know me, I have been active with MW in one capacity or another for quite a while. I am working on finishing up a computer engineering degree at my local university and spend most of my extracurricular time working in the robotics lab on campus. For the past three or four years the robotics club has been hosting a (small) competition during the spring semester. The clubs primary focus is usually on fire fighting robots, however they have always built a mech or two each year. MW has not been organized well in the past and hasn't followed the official rule set, therefore making it an officially sanctioned MW event.This year I have been asked to head up the organization of their MW competition and bring legitimacy to that particular portion of their competition.

I have, a venue, resources, arena, and full support of my department. The only thing lacking at the moment is competitors. There will most likely be three mech's for the school that will be competitive, as well as a few other universities who have already expressed interest in competing this year. We will be doing demos/fights regardless of whether or not anyone else shows up. I do think that it is a great opportunity for the MW community to get together and have some fun. I have talked with Andrew a little and he is going to try and do his best to support this particular installation of MW. I know his time and resources are limited with all the projects he is engaged in so anyone else who is will to help out let me know.

The competition is being held in Shepherdstown, WV, roughly an hour from D.C. and Baltimore. The event runs from Saturday March 28th, and Sunday March 29th and is free to register. Of course people are welcome to show up on Friday and help me set up the arena etc. For more information about the event visit ShepRoboFest.

I noticed that there are a few more competitors from the east coast than there were before and I would love to see some of you come out and compete/meet up with fellow TRC members.

I will be posting updates periodically, as well as answering any questions that you may have.

Thanks,
Seth

[Lupulus]

I hope I can make it to this for my first mech warfare event!
Main holdup for me is scoring panels. Trossen store is not stocking the old design, and while there's been some promising reports of new designs in the forums, those are not yet official (or available)...Do you have any recommendations?
Thanks,
Mike

[jwatte]

I hope I can make it, too! As long as it doesn't collide with the newly-revived RoboGames 2015 in San Mateo:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...to-your-screen

[sthmck]

I hope I can make it to this for my first mech warfare event!
Main holdup for me is scoring panels. Trossen store is not stocking the old design, and while there's been some promising reports of new designs in the forums, those are not yet official (or available)...Do you have any recommendations?
Thanks,
Mike

That is still to be determined, I can make the panels at the lab here at school however they aren't cheap and building them in low quantities will not make it cheaper. I will keep you posted on a solution.

[jpieper]

Would it be possible to use something really simple, like sheets of paper on top of foam, and you just count the number of holes in the paper? We've done this for some target practice and it was reasonable, although there could be some uncertainty as to the exact number of hits.

[sthmck]

Would it be possible to use something really simple, like sheets of paper on top of foam, and you just count the number of holes in the paper? We've done this for some target practice and it was reasonable, although there could be some uncertainty as to the exact number of hits.

There are several issues with that as far as actual competition go. You have no real way of keeping track of hit points in real time. Also like you said based on the guns most mechs use they will shred paper backed foam to pieces making it impossible to get an accurate score.

[Deimos]

My panels will likely be ready by then, I can send some to you, sthmck, if you would like to review them in lieu of official approval from Andrew. I've just been swamped with school/work, but I'll be getting a much needed break next quarter. I imagine Andrew would be willing to get a few transponder's available for purchase.

[jwatte]

I think the transponder firmware is open source, so worst case, you can make some from OSH Park circuit boards and off-the-shelf Xbee modules...

[sthmck]

My panels will likely be ready by then, I can send some to you, sthmck, if you would like to review them in lieu of official approval from Andrew. I've just been swamped with school/work, but I'll be getting a much needed break next quarter. I imagine Andrew would be willing to get a few transponder's available for purchase.

That would be great, if there is anything I can do from this end to help out let me know.

[Lupulus]

Likewise--Let me know if I can help, even if it's just "pre-ordering" some panels.
Thanks guys!