bumper thoughts

[DoughBoy]

http://files.andymark.com/Pictures/tank_3.jpg

any thoughts for bumper designs.

[Boltman]

Originally Posted by DoughBoy

http://files.andymark.com/Pictures/tank_3.jpg

any thoughts for bumper designs.

Yea... stay within 4" -12" zone your bumpers will be 5" high.

We are thinking 12" (12" -7") in front max height a bit lower in back angled.

You need either 8" corner sides or a side less than 8" entirely covered.

We are building a box frame inside treads and attach bumpers to that outside tread perimeter

Be careful if Scaling to Scale without going outside 15" vertices of the base.

[DoughBoy]

thank you we will take all of that into consideration thank you very much.

[c557paul]

I wanted to know if you have an intake device and your frame is less than 8", cam you just cover the frame or do you need an 8" long bumper?

[DrewMatic]

We were also thinking about bumpers being between 7"-12" (5" tall) without going over the 12" limit

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by c557paul

I wanted to know if you have an intake device and your frame is less than 8", cam you just cover the frame or do you need an 8" long bumper?

R19 will give you a pretty bulletproof rundown of this scenario.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

R19 will give you a pretty bulletproof rundown of this scenario.

That sounds like wishful thinking, unfortunately...seems a lot of teams have trouble understanding what the FRAME PERIMETER is, and what it means to be OK or NOT OK on a bumper segment. Since the pics in R19 don't actually show the scenario that everyone wants to build.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

That sounds like wishful thinking, unfortunately...seems a lot of teams have trouble understanding what the FRAME PERIMETER is, and what it means to be OK or NOT OK on a bumper segment. Since the pics in R19 don't actually show the scenario that everyone wants to build.

Which means that maybe we should do our own?

Edit: Like the attached?

[MrForbes]

Sure...and it would not be official....

I am just pointing out that the rules are kind of hard to understand, even with all the effort the GDC has put into making it easy to understand, yet not stifling creativity.

Somehow, they can't just come out and say you have to have 8" bumpers on each side of the slot on the front of your robot, and that slot can't be very wide.

[johnshayes]

Just wondering if anybody knows any restrictions regarding securing the bumpers, what do they have to be attached to?

I know they should be attached to the frame perimeter, but are there any rules stating that it has to be backed every x amount of inches that I may have missed?

Can you have a section of bumper free floating?

Just a couple of questions as my team is fairly new and has only had to deal with bumpers on one other occasion. any help on the matter would be much obliged.

[Sunshine]

R26
BUMPERS must be supported by the structure/frame of the ROBOT (see Figure 4-9). To be considered supported, a minimum of 1⁄2 in. at each end of the BUMPER must be backed by the FRAME PERMIETER. Additionally, any gap between the backing material and the frame:
A. must not be greater than 1⁄4” deep, or B. not more than 8 in. wide

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by johnshayes

Just wondering if anybody knows any restrictions regarding securing the bumpers, what do they have to be attached to?

I know they should be attached to the frame perimeter, but are there any rules stating that it has to be backed every x amount of inches that I may have missed?

Can you have a section of bumper free floating?

Just a couple of questions as my team is fairly new and has only had to deal with bumpers on one other occasion. any help on the matter would be much obliged.

You'll want to look closely at R26:

BUMPERS must be supported by the structure/frame of the ROBOT (see Figure 4-9). To be considered supported, a minimum of ½ in. at each end of the BUMPER must be backed by the FRAME PERMIETER. Additionally, any gap between the backing material and the frame:
A. must not be greater than ¼” deep, or
B. not more than 8 in. wide

And R21G:

BUMPERS must be constructed as follows (see Figure 4-7):
must attach to the FRAME PERIMETER of the ROBOT with a rigid fastening system to form a tight, robust connection to the main structure/frame (e.g. not attached with hook-and-loop, tape, or tie-wraps). The attachment system must be designed to withstand vigorous game play. All removable fasteners (e.g. bolts, locking pins, pip-pins, etc.) will be considered part of the BUMPERS.

The backing part is important, as these robots can be under a lot of stress when they hit, and you don't want your bumper breaking in half. But the "rigid fastening system" is even more important, in my opinion. No matter how well students are trained, at some point during the competition the team is going to be in a rush, and someone will pick the robot up by its bumpers. If it's not attached securely, then 150lbs of robot are going to fall, potentially injuring someone. Plus, I HAVE seen bumpers come off during game play. It's not really a good situation - The bumpers help prevent damage to your frame, and losing one can easily lead to more damage to your robot than you can fix!

[FrankJ]

With all the obstacles in this year game that the bumpers can potentially hang on... Robust bumper supports will be particularly important. Dragging bumpers can get your robot disabled for the match.

The rule requiring 2 in of support in the corners is a little perplexing to me. The edge of a box cutter blade is approximately 2 inches long. I would want more than that for a corner support.

[kitare102]

Originally Posted by EricH

Which means that maybe we should do our own?

Edit: Like the attached?

The bumper on those 8" sides might be over 8", depending on how the bumpers come together at that particular corner. Just to be even more clear, it might be better to say that short side of the robot itself is the thing that's 8" long