Quote:
Originally Posted by Molten
This is one thing I will happily proven wrong over. But, I still see problems. I don't see it shattering or nothing, but I can foresee some cracking of the plywood. Good luck to anyone that is willing to risk it all on such a borderline legal robot. I for one, want 1.5" square tubing all around the base. Nobody is going to worry about that breaking.
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I will beat on our tubing with a rubber mallet with complete confidence. It is structural, without a doubt.
Dave's calculations aside, I am 120% confident that there is no way our bumpers from last year or this year would break even if only supported every 12". We are using very high density, high quality plywood. It is extremely strong. I would have total confidence that if this year's robot was sitting at a stop and last year's bot t-boned it at 18.5 ft/s (with no bumpers on the front of last year's bot, mind you), this year's bumpers would be no worse for wear.
What is it going to take for teams to meet the bumper rules? a printout of a FEA of the robot? It's getting a little ridiculous when there's this much questioning of what is "structural" or not. If a team says a bar welded to their robot is structural, then that ought to be enough. If you can't make bumpers that don't break, well tough luck.
You can't legislate stupid. Teams will always shoot themselves in the foot even with all these restrictive rules designed to protect them.
$0.02