Tips from a veteran Robot Inspector

[EricH]

Originally Posted by wireties

Our bot pulls balls in on all 4 sides so we have small-ish bumper segments on the corners. Right now the numbers appear in order but with a gap on each side. Does that sound legal? Or would the complete number appearing across the corner work? The Q&As relevant to R35 are kinda vague. If you inspected our bot, what would you say?

TIA

If your number was split between the two bumpers, the Q&A is clear, at least to me. It's saying that you're going to be redoing the numbering to comply with the rules. I really wish they'd put it out in an Update, but it is what it is.

Game - The Robot » Bumper Rules
Q. We have a u-shaped robot, so will have split front bumpers. Can we split the our numbers; say "33" on the right and the "52" on the left or do all of the numbers need to be on one side of the robot? It may be a tight fit with the new number size criteria.
A. Per [R35], team numbers must be clearly visible. This means that they may not be inverted, obscured, fragmented, upside down, etc.

Game - The Robot » Bumper Rules » R35
Q. We are deciding to use a square U frame. So, we have to split the 4th bumper into 2 sections. Because of this, we can't decide how to place "3490" on our Bumper. Should we place the 4 numbers on 1 side, or should we split 34 and 90 across the Bumper. R35 doesn't explain how to handle this situation.
A. Per [R35] team numbers must be "clearly visible from a distance of not less than 100 ft, so that judges, referees, and announcers can easily identify competing Robots." Thus they may not be obscured in any way (disconnected, out of order, rotated, upside-down, mirror imaged, etc).

(emphasis mine)

So, no gaps, and I wouldn't go around the corner, either (too easy to construe as a gap in the number, or the wrong number altogether). But the GDC hasn't been asked about going around the corners yet, so that one might be an interesting one to see what they say.