[RRLedford]

I am concerned how quick release designs are not a violation of rules.

The hardware attached to the plywood can only protrude out from the plywood surface a bit more than 1/4" if it stays attached to the bumper.

So if you then declare the fancy bumper hardware is, instead, part of your robot and not part of the bumper, then they are sticking out past the outer planes the frame, which is also a violation, plus it reduces the max size of your frame.

So this seems to be a Catch-22 scenario. How is the quick release attachment H/W going to BRIDGE across both the frame and the plywood enough to strongly join them when the joining h/w can only overlap onto the frame by ~1/4"? Having only 1/4" of metal protruding from the plywood that can overlap onto the frame is not very much to work with for accomplishing an effective quick release design. Am I missing something here?

BTW, even if horizontal bolts going through the frame to protrude enough to screw into flush threaded inserts, set into the plywood, are used to secure the bumpers, are the bolts considered part of the robot or the bumper? If they are part of bumper, they are a violation, and if they are part of robot they can also be considered a violation (no protrusions from robot frame can go out very much), plus they would be extending the size of robot.

-Dick Ledford