Will Your Team Use Bumpers This Year?

[Thad House]

There was a round of applause at kickoff when Frank announced that. I think that says what teams think about bumpers.

[Koko Ed]

I'm sure if and when FIRST goes back to a game with contact they will bring bumpers back.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I'm sure if and when FIRST goes back to a game with contact they will bring bumpers back.

And when they do, I'll be happy.

The cushioning bumpers provide and the alliance designation really are huge improvements FIRST made to recent games to protect robots in high-interaction games and to clearly distinguish the alliances for drive teams, scouts, and spectators.

That said, I'm also very happy they're not required this year... neither their level of protection nor alliance designation are necessary at all this year. I suspect we may want to use low-profile, lightweight bumpers (such as these) in certain areas of our robot though...

[Brian C]

Teams 1468 and 4006 will eschew the use of bumpers this season.

[E Dawg]

159 will be making smaller bumpers for minimal protection, just in case something happens. It's always possible that you or another robot on your alliance could lose control, or something goes wrong with autonomous, and if you're not prepared, it would be bad. Better safe then sorry, in our opinion.

[nxtmonkeys]

Team 5349 will be making a bumper out of a single pool noodle and duct tape, but only if we need to.

[dellagd]

Not a chance.

[seg9585]

We may still use impact softening materials in certain places depending on our final design and strategy, but they won't be "bumpers" as they are thought of from past years. Especially given that they count against you in final robot weight.

[Squillo]

With no "bumper zone" to ensure that all robots have their outermost 'frame perimeter' in the same horizontal plane, not sure bumpers will be as useful as in prior years. However, it might still be nice to have some padding on the outermost points of contact just to protect against bumping into field elements, game pieces, etc.

[dusundavar]

While we are highly enthusiastic about not having bumpers, we don't ignore the fact that collisions aren't entirely avoidable, even with the best drivers. There are simply too many variables.

[Peyton Yeung]

Conversely would you still decline bumpers if the field was open for defense?

[Woetie]

Yes, we will probably use bumpers on our robot but we will try to slim them down compared to previous years cos this makes pick ups easier.
We havent decided yet if we are going to integrate them or not but as stated previously, velcrow is a great option to quickly attach them on the field.
We want bumpers because:
These robots have a lot of force behind them. A direct impact could cause serious damage not only to yourself but also to an alliance partner, the field or maby even a human when using the robot at a demo or when testing. Safely first!
Another reason to still go for bumpers is the fact that with level 6 tote stacks the visability will be limited so the chances of a high speed impact are higher.
And for us a final reason could be (we are still looking into this) is the fact that it helps decallerate the robot on impact making it less likely for carried tote stacks to fall over when hitting for example the steps. ( and you know this is gonna happen with all the pressure the drivers have during a match)

Edit: And bumpers can look super sweet now (imagine our 2014 bumpers in full black with orange highlights) so it adds to the look of your robot

Hope this helps teams to really think carefully before deciding on whether to use bumpers or not. Curious to see what teams come up with.

[NH Swag]

I can say with almost certainty that my team will not be doing bumpers this year. Making bumpers is always the chore that no one wants to do, so it gets postponed to the end of the season when time is scarce.
For what it's worth, team 1831 always make a hyper-sturdy bot. This was proven in 2013 when we fell off the top of the pyramid. Twice, in fact, and we broke nothing. So I don't think that a alliance-member bumping into our bot will hurt us at all.

[Tammyo]

We have not officially decided if we are going to use bumpers on our robot this year. If we do decide to use bumpers, then we may put them on the corners to maintain a lower weight limit and protection.

[fayfan]

3847 won't be using them.