Safety

Soldering Irons

Irons are hot and will burn you if they touch your skin. Be careful. Molten solder can splash so wear eye protection. Soldering should be done in a well ventilated room and you should avoid breathing in the fumes.

Sharp Edges

Any sharp edges should be filed smooth and spikes such as the top of the aerial wire should be bent over at the top to avoid injury to eyes.

Batteries

If you short the battery wires together there will be a bang and a flash. The leads may melt and fuse together and you may start a fire or burn yourself.
Battery connectors must be accessible at all times so that in the event of a runaway robot they can be removed easily to immobilise the robot very quickly.

Electric Shock

Maximum battery and charging voltage is 22 volts. You will not get an electric shock from this voltage.
Chargers plug into the mains and should be treated as a normal mains electrical appliance. Do not switch on at the mains until the charger is connected and switch off when disconnected from the batteries. Max charge rate is 0.4 amps.

Testing at your Bench

A runaway robot is highly dangerous. Batteries must therefore only be connected on the bench when the robot wheels are off the ground and free to rotate.
Batteries must not be connected if the robot is unattended or if the transmitter is not physically in your possession. Another team operating on your frequency could cause your robot to move.

Testing in the Arena

Dynamic robot testing must only be undertaken in the arena.
The person connecting the battery clips should do so slowly and stand to the side of the robot so that the battery clips can be removed immediately if any movement occurs.

Radio Control

There are a limited number of frequencies which are identified by channel numbers. Frequencies are changed by plugging different crystals into the transmitter and receiver. Each transmitter should be fitted with a coloured flag or clothes peg to identify its current frequency.
If two teams share the same frequency, both robots will move when the transmitter is operated. This could be highly dangerous if the other team is doing maintenance.
Batteries must therefore only be connected when the transmitter is physically in your possession.
Transmitters have an audible beep to indicate a low battery.
Switch off transmitters when they are not in use.

Loose Clothing

Electric drills are powerful. Keep loose clothing away from the robots and do not wear a tie to avoid it getting caught in the mechanism and strangling you.

Weapons and Aggression

Robots may not be fitted with weapons of any description. The Assault Course and Football competitions are not a war. Teams will be yellow carded (one warning) and red carded (banished to a sin bin) if they employ aggressive or dangerous tactics.

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