Antweight World Series 53 - University of Southampton

[cmalton]

NOTE: Postcode advertised here was partially incorrect. SO17 1BJ is the postcode for the University, SO16 7QF is the postcode that'll get you in the right place.... CHECK THE MAP PLEASE!

This has been rather a while in the pipeline - but, I am pleased to finally announce we've got there.

Between myself, Dave Weston and RoboSoc at the University of Southampton (mainly Kier), we have a venue for AWS 53.

Date: 4th November 2017
Times: 09:30 - 16:00
Venue: Design Studio, Building 177, University of Southampton (Boldrewood Campus), Southampton, SO16 7QF
Organiser: Chris Malton
Sign-ups close: Monday 30th October 2017 22:00

Due to unexpected charges from the University, we would ask that teams make a contribution towards our running costs for this event. A suggestion would be £5.

Local Map:


I am very grateful to Pete Waller for his assistance with provision of an arena for this event.

The event is now on Antlog and open for entries: http://antlog.garya.org.uk/entrant?eventId=7

If you are possibly coming (but aren't 100% sure), I'd far prefer you signed up then dropped out than turned up unannounced. While I don't need to book you all in individually with the University, I do need to be able to give them a reasonable idea of how many non University people are going to be present and make appropriate arrangements with Security for out-of-hours access. Giving them higher numbers than we actually get is OK, being lower tends to get people hopping up and down a bit.

General directions

From the North (Winchester, Basingstoke, London, Reading, Oxford, Bristol and beyond)

• Take the M3 heading towards Southampton

• As you approach Junction 13 you will see signposts that make no sense until you've missed a turning - beware!

• Take either fork at Junction 13 following signs for M27 West or M27 East - it does not matter

• Immediately after the fork take exit 14, signposted A33, Southampton

• Continue on the A33 (Bassett Avenue/The Avenue) for approximately 1.5 miles

• Take the first exit at the roundabout to stay on A33

• At the cross-roads with 4-way traffic lights, turn left onto Burgess Road

• The University's Boldrewood campus & Lloyds Register Offices will be on your left hand side.

• At the next set of traffic lights, turn left.

• Please follow the directions of our stewards outside the building.

From the East (Essex, Suffolk, Kent)

• Take the A3 heading towards Portsmouth

• At the bottom of the A3(M) continue onto the A27, heading to Southampton.

• Continue onto the M27

• Exit at Junction 5 for Southampton Airport

• Take the filter lane onto Stoneham Way (A335)

• Move into the right hand lane (but do not turn right)

• At the junction with the McDonald's, turn right onto Burgess Road

• Continue until you reach a set of traffic lights with a Shell garage on your right hand side. Continue straight at these lights

• At the next set of traffic lights, turn right.

• Please follow the directions of our stewards outside the building.

From Bournemouth and the South West (Dorset)

• Take the M27 heading towards Portsmouth

• Exit at Junction 5 for Southampton Airport

• Take the fourth exit onto Stoneham Way (A335)

• Move into the right hand lane (but do not turn right)

• At the junction with the McDonald's, turn right onto Burgess Road

• Continue until you reach a set of traffic lights with a Shell garage on your right hand side. Continue straight at these lights

• At the next set of traffic lights, turn right.

• Please follow the directions of our stewards outside the building.

By rail or air

• The nearest airport is Southampton Airport.

• The nearest main rail station is Southampton Airport Parkway or Southampton Central

• From Airport Parkway or Southampton Airport, catch the Uni-link U1C bus to Highfield Interchange. You will want a "day rider" ticket if you are going back same day. Note that Boldrewood campus is a short walk from Highfield campus - the U2C and U6H from Highfield both serve Boldrewood and a day rider ticket will be valid on either.

• From Southampton Central, exit on the North side of the station (Platform 1 side). Walk a short distance up the hill and there is a bus stop on the left hand side outside Mayflower Halls of residence. The U2X and U2B both serve Boldrewood campus. Note that the Mayflower Halls stop is the final stop on the route, and buses may arrive as a U2C - they will turn into a U2B/U2X shortly after.

Please ask here if you have any queries or questions.

Thank you for bearing with me while we work this through.

[cmalton]

So, here we go then - the last of the paperwork has been submitted (and I'm now actually praying that the University don't find some crazy last-minute excuse!).

Key points:
- Standard antweight rules apply as per the published rules (I believe v4.2 is current).
- All robots must pass a tech-check - you will be asked to demonstrate correct operation of all failsafe devices to myself or one of the other members of my team.
- Sharp edge protection is required (sorry guys - not my requirement, that's come from above!) for any sharp edges.
- All Lipo charging happens in Lipo bags. If you don't have one I will have few spare.
- Bring an extension lead - the venue has sockets - they are not always in the right places. We will do our best to help out where possible.
- Registration is required on the day + all team members require wristbands to get in and out of the event. It's purely so the Uni know who's supposed to be there! There's also a couple of bits I have to do in relation to insurance.
- Please follow directions of our team members doing traffic management on the morning. It will make your life (and mine) easier - especially if we ever do this again!
- Power tools - Avoid mains powered if you can. Battery powered is OK.
- Chargers, etc - No Heath-Robinson contraption style chargers please. For insurance reasons I cannot allow crazy arrangements with ATX power supplies in cardboard boxes (sorry!). I will, however, have two of my quad chargers (bring your own banana plug to whatever leads) on hand if needed.
- Other electrical equipment may be subjected to checks by myself, or any one of the team working with me.
- Fleas and Nanos will be run at the end of the day.
- There is no wifi on venue (unless you have a University account and can use eduroam).
- We are *hoping* to be able to display details of Now/Next/Next+1/Next+2 battles on several screens across the room, plus the projector, but this is subject to me having enough time to finish that this week - we will otherwise make sure the local event Antlog is available to people.

If you have a problem with any of the above, please feel free to message me and I will happily explain further or discuss the issue with you. On the day, I'd ask that you bring any issues to my attention as soon as possible so we can fix them.

If you need to grab lunch - there is a Shell, Costa and Pret within 5 minutes walk, and a Co-op within 10 minutes walk.

For those of you still building, good luck (don't forget to sign up by 22:00 tomorrow) - and I'll see you next weekend!

[limpet]

We will be attending, still got to build so will sign up later

[Andrew_Hibberd]

I will be there, need to make repairs from the previous event.

[Hogi]

I am glad to be able to sayi was able to book the day off work so I will be there. Now I just need to get building some robots.

[AntRoboteer]

Shall be there, we will sign up soon.

[cmalton]

Regrettably, the University have chosen to suddenly spring charges on us in relation to running the event (in either space). Both myself and the team at Southampton knew these possibly applied for the space in 177 - but we didn't see it coming for building 58 as the room booking got accepted without telling us.

In order to allow this to proceed, I'm going to pick up the costs incurred - some £317!!!! - which has literally appeared overnight.

The plus side: We'll get the nicer space in building 177.
The minus side: We would ask that (if possible) teams contribute a minimum of £5 towards the costs of making this happen.

While this clearly will not cover the costs we'll incur on our side, I am not going to cancel this event now that is advertised.

[peterwaller]

That's a bit of a blow for you but we have in the past been asked to pay an entry fee without any real problems.
By making it a minimum entry per team some might feel they can contribute a little more.

[GeorgeR]

That's really unfortunate about the hidden charges, and very generous of you to pick up the tab. I'll definitely be contributing over the minimum, it's far less than the cost of building a bot, and without people running events the robots aren't much use.

[Kaazmin]

Will You also be doing nano and flea weight battles ??