Arena

All finished and ready to show off!! Check out the building details below!



The arena is 6'x6' using 2"x2" steel tubing and 7/16" Lexan. It was TIG welded by yours truly. It is mounted to a modified 4'x8' Harbor Freight trailer.

I have a bill of materials and expense/vendor list here.

The Sparc.tools arena construction best practices are here. As you can see we built our arena to 30lb combat spec for the express purpose of testing larger bots. Also, I got a sweet deal on 7/16" Lexan...

I posted the CAD files to thingiverse here. Because why not.

*For all of our arena building updates - make sure to follow us on Facebook!*


Previous Post:

So before you can host a combat robot event, you need to build a combat robot arena.

...if you build it, they will destroy robots in it...

And here it is! Let me walk you through the design. The internal volume is 6'x6' by 4' high. The structural steel is 2" square tubing, welded. The lexan sheets are 4' x 6', 7/16" thick. The front and aft windows are one piece, the side windows are cut in half and slide past each other like shower doors. The fixed windows are bolted (gently!) to 1" L brackets with a cushion of foam rubber between to absorb impacts. The roof and floor are 1" of plywood, stacked and secured to cross-members. I am hopeful the floor will be steel, eventually, but that's a stretch goal for the first combat meet.

The arena is bolted to a 4'x8' trailer.

Not shown: there will be kick plates to protect the lexan. There will be interior lights and a sound system. An interlock for the doors during combat, etc. 

I got a ROM quote for material that came in at $734 for the last iteration of the design. A number of improvements and feedback incorporated in this design should lower the cost somewhat. The lexan was already purchased for $100/sheet last year.

The somewhat optimistic timeline looks like this:
  1. Finalize CAD: January 25
  2. Get material quote: January 28
  3. Receive material: February 01
  4. Arena tacked together for verification: February 15
  5. Arena assembled: March 01
Once the arena is assembled I plan on having a 'road tour' to show off combat robotics at several events and perhaps secure sponsorship for an event or two. Right now everything is coming out of my pocket, and the hope is after a year or two a core group will form and we can convert this into a charitable organization or a social club, with the tax benefits those things entail.