Arena Pallets

The arena base consists of pallets, each measuring 600 x 1200 mm (24 x 48 in) in size. The number of pallets required will depend on how big you wish to make the arena. For a competition arena, we recommend building 18 pallets.

These pallets may be constructed in any way you deem fit as long as the following criteria are satisfied.

  • The top surface should be Oriented Strandboard (OSB). If this is not economically available, plywood with a surface friction similar to OSB should be used.
  • The sides should be thick enough to support the attachment of walls strong enough to hold robots and terrains in.
  • The pallet should be sufficiently structurally sound to support the robots and terrains while being supported from the four corners. Depending on the application, it may also be necessary to ensure that the pallets are strong enough to survive general handling and the possibility of people standing on it.

We constructed each pallet as follows:

Materials:

  • OSB sheets:
    • (A) 1x 15 x 600 x 1200 mm (0.5 x 24 x 48 in)
  • Solid wood posts:
    • (B) 2x 50 x 100 x 1200 mm (2 x 4 x 48 in)
    • (C) 3x 50 x 100 x 500 mm (2 x 4 x 20 in), sized to fit between (B)
  • Screws:
    • 12x M5 x 80 mm ( #10 x 2.5 in) screws
    • 12x M5 x 40 mm ( #10 x 1.5 in) screws

pallet

Note that the reference arena layout also contains an “ant farm” stack. This will require 2 pallets to have a 300 x 300 mm (12 x 12 in) hole cut in the middle of one end as shown below.

pallet-hole