[Mike Nawrot]

Bumpers have many benefits and pitfalls. Personally, bumpers saved our robot this year, considering it was a little top heavy. I cannot begin to count the number of times our robot balanced on two wheels and a bumper after being hit from the side by another robot. We won those matches because we balanced on the bumper enough for one of our alliance partners to tip us back and allow us to score. There were even ocasions where we were still shooting while balancing on our bumper. On the other hand, bumpers eliminate alot of design aspects, such as designing with CG in mind from the get-go, to material choice and such, because the students that design the robot no longer have to worry about how they'll make their drivetrain/robot withstand the abuse an FRC robot endures. This has a negative result in some situations, since the students may learn less than they would otherwise. Also, bumpers are more prone to aggressive play on the feild, resulting in more robots flipping and breaking. Bumpers are a great idea if robot contact and aggressive play are still called to a degree, and if structural integrity is still taken into mind during the design, there is almost no disadvantage. But like I said, aggressive contact has to be more closely monitored.