[ChuckDickerson]

As a robot inspector, I am looking at the clue slightly differently. What if the clue was telling us more about the robot and less about the game? Every year lots of teams have “issues” with bumpers and understanding that what they call their robot’s “frame” and what FIRST calls the “FRAME PERIMETER” is not necessarily the same thing. Sometime back, I think in one of Bill’s blogs, teams were told that FIRST will be taking a hard look at the bumper rules this year to try to alleviate some of the confusion and frustration observed by both teams and inspectors. Maybe that was clue #1? Next we have also been told that the KitBot chassis will be a different this year. Couple that with the published box dimensions that (if you take as fact and not a typo) could lead one to conclude the KitBot chassis may be smaller this year. Let’s call that clue #2. Then the established clue #3 seems to refer to the singer Seal, missing something (i.e. “sliming down”), yet maintaining weight. This leads me to think that this year the bumpers must completely “seal” the robot (no gaps, no minimum bumper lengths, etc.). Also, I speculate that the robot must fit within the sizing box WITH bumpers attached. The sizing box may or may not be changed to accommodate a new robot dimension but the sizing box will include some sort of built in gauge or measurement system to check for bumper zone violations. The robot weight will remain at approximately 140 lbs (120 lbs + bumpers). I wouldn’t be surprised if the robots will still be sized 28”x38” but that will include the bumpers and the weight limit will be increased to 140 lbs but still won’t include the weight of the battery.