The test arena was still at the back of the pits in the new series (the complete opposite side of the pits to the arena). TeamShakey (talk) 18:05, April 7, 2018 (UTC)
Series 3 Testing Area (or lack of)[]
Browsing through the forum that SpaceManiac888 linked in his recent blog post, I discovered an interesting comment from Dave Barker of 1 Law Robotics which suggests that Series 3 didn't have a dedicated testing area:
- "Lack of testing area proved to be our downfall. If we had the opportunity to do some proper run tests after messing with our failsafe set up, we would have found the tuning problem that manfested itself in the arena"
- — Dave Barker
In the same comment, he puts forward suggestions for a testing area and recommendations for better safety procedures concerning the activation of robots:
- "The testing area MUST be well away from the pits though OR better control of robot activation has to be put in place. IE Robot running in test area, robot on bench 10 feet away on same frequency has main power switch on to check a connection, axe fires..."
- — Dave Barker
Of course, the testing area that did appear in Series 4 was part of The Pits, but it does beg the question of why one wasn't included as part of Series 3. In that case, where exactly was Mauler tested ahead of its disqualification from the First World Championship? VulcansHowl 13:31, December 7, 2018 (UTC)
- Outside, it appears! Possible evidence comes from Ian Inglis:
- "Miss Struts was there on Sunday and I felt that the safety issues were well handled in the pit and the arena. I appreciated the documents with the arena and pit procedures. We also had to fuel up outside with a fireman present, but did not find this an imposition, except when it was dark in the evening. We did make it quite clear we need to fuel up about half an hour before we were in the arena. The bench we were allocated was completely taken away for us as we could not park Miss Struts within the taped lines on the floor, this worked out very nicely for us! I would agree that there needed to be more people doing the basic technical checks, as it looked like Dereck and Mat already seemed to have plenty to do. The chap who did the electrical saftey tests we found very helpful and had a positive attitude to passing our homemade battery charger. Because Miss Struts is powered by a IC engine(fumes), we had to do our test runs and failsafe checks outside in the rain, would have been okay except I got soaked! I would recommend that in future everybody provides their own wooden frame to sit their robot on to do tests with the wheels clear of the ground, this would be safer than bricks and could be tailored to your robot, and help in your own workshops."
- — Ian Inglis
Further evidence comes in the image, where Mauler is clearly testing after a period of wet weather. I think some were discussing a car park outside the arena, so maybe that was where Mauler and Miss Struts were tested on? If so, another health and safety violation waiting to happen! SpaceManiac888 (Talk) 13:52, December 7, 2018 (UTC)
- Indeed. I'd imagine that as a passer-by, it would've been VERY scary to see Hypno-Disc or Mauler testing their weapons first-hand in an open space with little-to-no protection. It's interesting to note that the 'frame' Inglis recommends practically serves the same purpose as the cradles that we see in heavyweight robot combat today... VulcansHowl 14:40, December 7, 2018 (UTC)