Thread: May bumpers move?
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Unread 29-01-2009, 16:57
Russ Beavis Russ Beavis is offline
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Re: May bumpers move?
Mobile bumpers have not been explicitly declared to be illegal in any rules or Q&A responses (to the best of my knowledge). Be VERY careful, however -

1) bumpers must be mounted to a solid structural element in your robot and not a flimsy actuator
2) the bumper perimeter must ALWAYS be at or beyond the reach of every other part of your robot
3) you need to protect BOTH sides of EVERY vertex in your bumper perimeter and the corners can never have any "hard" parts.
4) bumper perimeter must always stay within the 28"x38" envelope.

You should consider posting a question on the FRC Q&A regarding bumper mounting to additional "shock absorbers" within your robot. Rule R08-G (ie #1 above) requires that the bumpers be "tight" and "robust" in their mounting to the robot structure. Regardless, why bother with the complexity associated with something intentionally moving under impact? I could imagine some interesting uses of the extra energy but I'm skeptical.

Also, I have trouble imagining a corner that moves and still fully complies with #3 above.

Russ