Open area on robot?

[ablahblah]

Hi all,

We're having a bit of trouble arguing what we can do in terms of ball pickup and bumpers. What we don't get is whether we can

a) have an open area on the robot with no bumpers for ball intake
b) break our bumper perimeter in game

A and B are mutually exclusive.

For a, we need a way to funnel a ball into the robot for launching. The launcher would sit right next to the opening, and would intercept it while launching (our launcher is a rotary arm type). Since the bumper area is 3 to 10 inches off the ground, we don't think a bumper can fit there. I read in the manual that each exterior vertex should have 8 in of bumper next to it, but I can't clarify whether it allows open areas or not.

For b, we're considering to pull out a bumper with a window motor, and retract it as needed. This would break the bumper perimeter, and I'm not sure whether we can just tip off the ends of the chassis with mini bumpers.

Anyone have an idea? I haven't needed to really deal with this in past teams, hehe.

[EricH]

b would be classified as an articulated bumper, which is explicitly disallowed.

Provided that you have 8" of adequately-supported bumper on each side of each exterior vertex, there are no restrictions on what gaps you can have in the bumper.

[mayde]

Please try to refer to the game manual next time before asking questions like this.

For A: refer to R33 and R27 for acceptable bumper designs; this includes illustrations of acceptable arrangements.
http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/viewItem/57#4.1.6

For B; It is not allowed to at any time remove part of the bumper intentionally(accidents do happen, and this will earn you a penalty if it happens accidentally, but something that would purposely do this would never pass inspection) during a match. If you need something to reach over or under the bumpers from your robot's frame (e.g., to push down the bridge or assist in ball collection), these mechanisms must be no more than 14" in length past the perimeter of the frame as per R02:
[R02]
..any appendage may not extend more than 14 in. beyond the frame perimeter, and no other part of the Robot may extend beyond the vertical projection of the Frame Perimeter...).
The appendage rule also means that you may not have more than one appendage extended at any given time. More than one would be acceptable, but they must be independently controlled and used separately from one another.
If you have more questions about the appendages, you can refer to one of the many Q.&A. posts on the subject in the official forum.

Most issues such as these can be avoided by reading the manual prior to the design process and regularly reviewing manual and gameplay updates throughout the duration of the season.