<R07>E Bumper clarification
 

My question is, does the fabric have to wrap around the entire bumper, or could we just have fabric on the three exposed sides?


In this image
Black=Bumper Hardware (noodles, plywood, mounting supplies)
Red=Fabric cover that is absolutely required
Green=Fabric in question.


To reiterate, is the Green fabric from the image required?

Sorry for my bad photoshop

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

Typically the fabric needs to wrap slightly onto the back side in order to fasten it on, but you do not need to fully wrap the other side.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

i dont see wrapping the back all the way necessary because the rule states that all "exposed sides" and the back wouldnt be exposed.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

R7 ...
E. The BUMPERS must be covered with a rugged, smooth cloth (1000 dernier Cordura Plus® strongly recommended). The cloth must completely enclose the BUMPER backing (plywood) and cushion (pool noodle) material. It is recommended that lengths of aluminum angle be used to clamp the fabric in place

This is taken from the rules, red highlight is mine. To say that the cloth does not have to cover the back is NOT what is stated in the rules. Please read the rules before making statements.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

Figure 8-1 conflicts with this interpretation of the wording.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

Steve, the exact wording has been used in the past, and teams have passed with the backs of the backing (i.e., the robot side) not covered. Any team that does opt to cover that side may have a slightly harder time attaching bumpers.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

If I am inspecting I will follow the rules. The diagrams are only helps like the blue boxes and not the rules. I would hate to be a team that can't compete because they did not follow the rules. It is also something I would bring up if I noticed that a team did not have completely covered backs. Why should some of us follow the rules and others not?

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

Why should some go through more work than they need to?

I don't think anybody's asked this to Q&A yet. If I had access, I would. I don't have access to ask questions. It should be a fairly simple: "Does <R07-E> require that the entire robot side of the plywood bumper backing be covered by the fabric? If it does, can Figure 8-1 be modified to reflect this?"

Also, by Figure 8-1 being referenced in the way it is ("must be constructed as described below and illustrated in Figure 8-1"), Figure 8-1 becomes the definitive illustration of the bumpers. Whether or not the rules support it, that is how a large number of teams will build their bumpers. Now you're telling them that they will not be allowed to compete, just because they didn't cover an area that the drawings didn't show covered and the rules *might* have been interpreted to say had to be covered--the rules appear to be ambiguous, at least in enforcement.

If Q&A doesn't say one way or the other, then both sides are equally valid. Let it alone. If Q&A says one way or the other, then that way is the way that all teams will need to go--and an update will probably be released to advise teams of this way.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

This situation is the case where the figure does not match the description again.
I would suggest completely covering the back to cover your bases OR submit a Q&A inquiry.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

We noticed a similar thing in the part of the rule that states that the bumper backing should be the full length of the perimeter ( Im paraphrasing, its very late and after 20 hours I do that ), so this leads me to believe that the plywood is the same dimension as the robot frame on any side. Further in the rules figure 8-2 describes how the bumpers should meet at corners, so as to not have any gaps is how we interpret this. Our question is it legal if the bumpers dont meet each other in the corners but still have no gaps allowing the robot frame to make contact with anything?

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

Unfortunately, the wording in the past has not been exactly the same.

Time to go submit my third Q&A question in 3 days.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

I think the key word is "EXPOSED". The bumper backing facing the robot isn't exposed.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

The key word is definitely "exposed" however, what does the GDC mean when they say exposed? Do they mean the part that is facing the inside part of the robot, or just the parts that could possibly come into contact with other robots?

I would ask this question in Q&A, but unfortunately I do not have access to.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

Oops, now I look like an idiot for quoting the rule from an old Revision on the Q&A :mad: That's what I get for poor organization of my manual folder.
*Deletes RevA*

Oh, well, I would have asked the question anyway.

Brian,

As noted above, I have asked this on the Q&A.

Re: <R07>E Bumper clarification
 

Yeah, why would they specify the exposed bumper material if they meant all of it? I can't see how the word "exposed" means "all of the plywood". The figure supports my conclusion. Bump on!