ANTWEIGHT WORLD SERIES RULES 4.0

1) Definitions

Roller - A robot whose final drive output rotates through more than 180 degrees

Walker - A robot whose final drive output rotates through less than 180 degrees

Shufflebot - A robot that rests on part of its body during the recovery phase of its leg movement.

Armour - A protective layer or skin. Monocoques are defined as armour.

CE - CE mark, used in Europe to determine compliance to European directives. See http://www.conformance.co.uk/CE_MARKING/ce_content.html

MPT - United Kingdom Radiocommunications Agency standards. See http://www.radio.gov.uk/publication/mpt

Clusterbot - A robot which consists of two or more parts.

Botlets - The smaller parts that make up a complete Clusterbot.

Battle box - Afully enclosing safety shield that surrounds the arena.

Remote control - Control without physical contact between the robot and the controller (i.e conventional model radio control, bluetooth or infra red no wires or strings etc.)

2) Robot Rules

a) Weight limits: robots must weigh less than the following:

Fleaweight  Antweight Units
Roller 75 150 grams
Walker/Shufflebot    113 225 grams

b) Size limits: robots must fit completely (including aerial) inside a cube of the following dimensions:

Fleaweight  Antweight Units
  3 4 inches
  76.2 101.6 mm

c) Robots may only expand from the above size limit once they are in the arena, and only if the expansion is instigated by remote control (i.e. not just by being springy).

d) Batteries must not contain liquid acid, or electrolyte, or exceed a maximum of 24 volts.

e) Robots must have an externally accessible way of being shut down (i.e. a power switch, removable link or battery plug).

f) The following weapon types are not permitted:

- Fluid based weapons (treacle guns, etc.)
- Glue or sticky pad weapons
- String or entanglement weapons
- Flame based weapons
- The use of electricity as a weapon
- Explosive weapons
- Rotating weapons that may shatter (as opposed to breaking off)

g) Any system involving the use of pressurised gas or liquid is limited to 100 p.s.i. (7 Bar).

h) For safety purposes, all weaponry must have the capability of being deactivated by remote control.

i) Weapons are not permitted to deliberately detach completely from the robot, but may be partially separated as long as it is connected by a tether of no more than 3 feet (914 millimetres). The tether may not be used as an entanglement weapon.

j) The maximum thickness of metal armour is 1mm or 0.040" or 18 gauge (+/- 5% tolerance) (there are no thickness limits on non-metallic armour).

k) Armour consisting of one continuous metal plate must not protect more than one third of the robots perimeter (welded plates will be considered as a continuous metal plate).

l) Metal weapons that are more than 1mm thick, and that also provide armour-like protection, must be capable of remote controlled movement (with respect to the rest of the robot) in order to qualify as a weapon.

m) The following radio frequencies are acceptable: 27 MHz, 40 MHz, 418 MHz, 433-434 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.45 GHz.

n) Magnetic/inductive systems are not permitted (due to the possibility of interference with later arena designs).

o) In the absence of other transmitters, the robot weapon shall cease motion when the controlling transmitter is switched off.

p) All radio control transmitters must be CE and MPT compliant.

q) The botlets of a clusterbot must altogether meet the size and weight limits of the class in which they are completing (i.e. all three botlets of an antweight clusterbot must all fit in a single four inch cube at once), but if two fleaweights are competing as botlets of an antweight cluster then they must each conform to fleaweight size and weight restrictions.

r) Where a clusterbot is composed of a rotary and a walking/shuffling botlet, then each botlet is allowed up to half the maximum of its class (e.g. an antweight cluster might be composed of a roller weighing 75 grams and a walker weighing 113 grams).

s) A robot must be placed in the arena, ready to fight within five minutes of being called to fight by the organiser (this is a maximum limit, contestants are encouraged to be ready to fight as soon as possible). Failure to be ready to fight within five minutes will mean the robot may be judged to have lost the fight.

t) Sponsorship is allowed if it is in good taste

u) Robots must be clearly labelled with their names. A clusterbot must display the name of the cluster on all botlets.


3) Arena Rules
a) All battles must take place in a battle box, regardless of weapons being used in the battle (a minimum of 1mm thick polycarbonate is recommended for indirect contact with the robots. For direct contact, a minimum of 4mm thick polycarbonate is recommended).

b) The arena will be a raised platform with an area of at least 30 inches (762mm) square.

c) At least half of the edge of the arena must be unwalled, to allow robots to drop directly into the ditch that surrounds the arena (a recommended height for arena walls is 50mm).

c) The minimum distance between the edge of the unwalled part of the arena and the battle box (and therefore the width of the ditch) is 150mm.

4) Combat Rules

a) Battles will last for a maximum of three minutes.

b) A robot that falls off the arena has lost.

c) When any robot is immobile (lacking controlled motion) then a judge will call cease and the driver will have ten seconds to demonstrate that control has been restored, otherwise the robot will have lost.

d) At any time in a fight, a robot may surrender, if so they will have lost (The roboteer may shout stop).

e) Robots may hold or pin each other for a maximum of 20 seconds. The judge will give a verbal warning at 15 seconds into any holding or pinning, for the contestants to disengage. Should they not do so within final 5 seconds then the battle will be paused and the robots returned to their respective corners. The battle will then recommence immediately.

f) Outside manipulation is not permitted during the contest (they may be manipulated by a judge during a pause in the battle, as described in the previous rule).

g) A Clusterbot will have lost when more than half of the botlets have been eliminated.


5) Competition Guidelines

a) Robots will be weighed by scales that are accurate to at least one gram (the weight limit is judged as the 'fighting weight' entering the arena).

b) Contestants must register their frequencies (including which crystals they have) with the event organiser at least 7 days before the contest.

c) Contestants must obey the event organiser at all times, or be disqualified.

d) All sharp edges must have protective covers outside the arena. All protective covers are to be coloured red and made clearly visible.

e) Contests must communicate in a socially acceptable way.

f) There shall be 3 neutral judges identified before each battle and all shall have an equal vote.

g) If a contestant has an objection to one or more of the judges then he/she shall make it clear before the match begins. The AWS committee will then decide if the complaint is valid.