How to build good bumpers

[Basel A]

Originally Posted by rich2202

I've seen a lot of sagging bumpers. If your wood ends exactly at 4'" (assuming the limit is 4"), I can guarantee you that some part of the noodle/covering will materially sag below 4". Especially after it has encountered another robot (or the wall) a few times.

As I recall, the noodles themselves are not stapled, or otherwise attached to the wood, so all that is holding up the noodles is the cloth. That cloth will loosen up.

A game update was applied in 2014 to allow the noodles to be attached. I would hope that the updated rule is applied in future games that have bumpers.

Originally Posted by Team UPDATE - 2014-02-11

To assist in applying the fabric covering, fasteners may be used to attach the pool noodles to the wood backing, so long as the cross section in Figure 4-8 is not significantly altered (e.g. tape compressing the pool noodles).

As such, my team had duct tape holding the noodles in place against the plywood. This eliminated concerns about noodle sag.