Bumper Specifications

[RenanTroia]

Does anyone know If the robot can have a corner shorter than 8 inches? e.g, we are thinking about a robot which has a "u" shape, and the outside corners around that "opening" to the boulder, in our robot, are shorter than 8 in. Is that a violation of the bumper rules?

[notmattlythgoe]

R19 ROBOTS are required to use BUMPERS to protect all outside corners of the FRAME PERIMETER.
For adequate protection, at least 8 in. of BUMPER must be placed on each side of each outside
corner (see Figure 4-3). If a side is shorter than 8 in., the entire side must be protected by
BUMPER (see Figure 4-4). A round or circular FRAME PERIMETER, or segment of the frame
perimeter, is considered to have an infinite number of corners.

Unfortunately since the side wouldn't be shorter than 8" it would be illegal.

[MrForbes]

There are already a few threads on this subject...it's a common idea...the gist of it is that the FRAME PERIMETER is determined by the outer corners, and that's where the bumpers need to be. And they need to extend at least 8" from each externa. corner, towards the next external corner. Not inwards along your U shaped notch.

[david.e.boles]

Seems like you can have sides shorted than 8", not sure about around openings...
http://imgur.com/a/7KjkV

[notmattlythgoe]

Seems like it's allowed to me:
http://imgur.com/a/7KjkV

The picture showing the one section with less than 8" is valid because the entirety of that side is less than 8". In a U shaped robot the entire side would not be less than 8".

[T3_1565]

I think of it in this way:

You are not covering the corners of your ROBOT. You are covering the corners of your FRAME PERIMETER. So, Take string and wrap it around your robot. Remove said robot. Wherever there are corners in your string "Frame" you must put 8 inches of bumper on either side of those corners.

Hopefully that helps more then confuses

[GaryVoshol]

An existing thread on this subject is here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141721

It has a picture, and I added my comments about what a "side" of the ROBOT means.

The description by T3_1565 above is also quite good.