[EricH]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Mike,
Could that allow a team to not have bumpers on the corners making that part of the frame a weapon? One of our tests for bumpers is being able to punch the corner and not feel anything hard. The whole point in bumpers is to prevent robot damage.

I think that what he's trying to say could be better expressed as:

"Each side of each corner of the frame perimeter shall be covered by bumpers with a length at least 8" or 25% of the length of the side, whichever is less."

Example: A team has a 16" side, for whatever reason. It is next to a 36" side (I'm not assuming any particular bumper perimeter length). The 16" side, under current rules, needs to be entirely covered by bumpers; the 36" side is slightly less than half covered by bumpers. The rule change suggested would allow the 16" side to use 4" bumper lengths on each end, rather than 8". However, the 36" side would still be constrained to 8" minimum length bumpers, as 25% of 36" is 9". Any bumper less than 4" long on the 16" side, or less than 8" long on the 36" side, is a violation of the rule.

BTW, Al, if you have any input into this: I'd LOVE to see the frame perimeter measurement kept as the size rule. Changing the size is relatively simple, and it opens up a lot of odd frame shapes.