[EricH]

Speaking for just about anybody who played before 2006: Bumpers are for wimps. Ignore them when designing, other than to place mounts.


That said, you start by designing protection for all critical systems. Use safety factors well above 1, say around 3-4. (Even use fatigue safety factors--that will help with keeping everything functional.)

Use shielding liberally--nothing worse than someone's arm going in and shredding electronics, unless it's your shooter wheel disintegrating while uncontained.

Have spare parts that can be installed very quickly. The hardware will be too intimidated to break. I know my team had a spare arm that could be swapped in by pulling a couple of bolts and a couple of air lines, pull out, push the new one in, reinstall the bolts and air lines, start play. Never once had to use it--so we let the MC show it off for us on the field before a big match.