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On March 3-6, 2005 I built the arena for the 2005 Defcon RobotWarez Contest.
At my work we sell sheet metal manufacturing machines. A few coworkers were gracious enough to cut and bend some parts that I needed to create the arena.
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| The machine we used is an 4000 Watt (8kW peak) IR CO2 laser (that's class IV) which can cut up to an inch of solid steel for the low low price of $500,000!
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The control panel and closeup of the design to be cut. The material starts out as a sheet of steel.
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The laser cuts out the shapes according to the DXF file, the software in the control automatically figures out where to place them for optimum material usage. It takes about 40 seconds to cut each piece.
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Some of the rejects that someone will see of the next few weeks and wonder "what's defcon?"
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These pieces connect the straight segments together, I modeled the design after the one on the defcon homepage
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Plus two 20" skulls for the end of the arena.
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After everything was cut, we moved over to a bending machine ($150,000 or so) to bend the corner pieces at a precise 90 degrees. It's basically a machine that puts a few dozen tons of pressure at an exact angle.
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Then I took them home and spray painted a clear coat of paint on them to prevent the steel from rusting. A total of 24 angles pieces, 2 20" skulls, and 16 8" skulls were made.
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The walls of the arena are just cheap vinyl coated wood pulp stuff. I cut the pieces into segments that could fit in my trunk ;)
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The finished arena! The final size is 5' x 10', with the maze walls at 2.5', 5', and 7.5'. Note that the skulls and corner pieces are both help on by bolts which stick out 1/4". The flooring hasn't been decided yet, but it will be IR reflective.
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