The Bumper Rules

[Cyberphil]

Hey everyone. I just wanted to make things clear for our team, and other teams. What are the official size constraints for the bumpers on the robots? I have heard some people say that 2/3 of the outside of the robot has to be covered. But then I have heard that you need at least 6" on each side too. I don't know if both of these rules are true,or if one is, but can you please help me out?

And good luck to all teams for 2009, and hopefully many years to come!

Phil

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Cyberphil

Hey everyone. I just wanted to make things clear for our team, and other teams. What are the official size constraints for the bumpers on the robots? I have heard some people say that 2/3 of the outside of the robot has to be covered. But then I have heard that you need at least 6" on each side too. I don't know if both of these rules are true,or if one is, but can you please help me out?

And good luck to all teams for 2009, and hopefully many years to come!

Phil

<R08> is your friend. 6" per segment minimum; 2/3 of the bumper perimeter (see Section 8.2) must be covered.

[Cyberphil]

Can you copy the whole rule down because i cannot get to the rules now. Thank you very much!

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by EricH

<R08> is your friend. 6" per segment minimum; 2/3 of the bumper perimeter (see Section 8.2) must be covered.

This is correct, just to quote the rule:

Regarding minimum bumper segment length:

<R08> A. BUMPERS must be built in segments, with a minimum length of six inches, and a maximum length that does not exceed the maximum horizontal dimension of the ROBOT.

Regarding minimum bumper coverage:

<R08> K. BUMPERS must protect a minimum of 2/3 of the BUMPER PERIMETER. Teams are encouraged to maximize the area of the ROBOT protected by BUMPERS. But up to 1/3 of the BUMPER PERIMETER may be unprotected to provide flexibility in design options.

[Cyberphil]

Thank you very much! You guys are a real big help.

[Alex_Miller]

Bumpers also need to be positioned so that any contact your robot makes with anything else (like a wall) needs to be only bumper to bumper contact.

The BUMPER location and design have been specified so that ROBOTS will make BUMPER-to-BUMPER contact during any collisions. If implemented as intended, a ROBOT that is driven into a vertical wall in any normal PLAYING CONFIGURATION will always have the BUMPER be the first thing to contact the wall.