[EricH]

Originally Posted by markulrich

Doesn't that mean that we need to have bumpers on all for sides?

After all, think of what might happen if metal on our robot hit the arena/robot/trailer bumpers!!!!!!! Probably spontaneous combustion.

It doesn't necessarily mean that. However, let's do some simple math.

You do like most teams and build an inch short of the sizing box (to fit in), so your robot is 27" x 37" in the bumper perimeter. You now have a total bumper perimeter of 27+27+37+37 inches = 54+74 inches = 128 inches. You must cover 2/3 of that, so 128/3= 42.66666 is approximately 42 and 2/3 inches that you don't have to cover. That's a full long side of the robot and then some.

For a 27 x 27 robot has 108 inches, divided by three is 36 inches. Again, more than one side of the robot.

HOWEVER, 7" of either one is taken by the trailer hitch. For a full-size robot, that means that 35" uncovered is available to work with. That is a full short side and then some, or most of a long side (which means that you won't have 1/3 unprotected due to the segment rule).
For a 27 x 27 robot, that's 29" available, again, just over 1 side of the robot.

James, where does it say that the whole robot must be covered in bumpers?