Robot bumpers

[Justin M.]

Originally Posted by MattLi

Please explain. I pulled from this that you're saying the bumpers are included in the weighing of your robot. I was almost certain that they're not included.

No, I was correcting his statement that bumpers allow you to use extra weight on your bot, as an advantage. Since the bumpers need to be built to FIRST specs, and are weighed separately, you aren't getting a 15lb weight gain on your overall bot, ruling out using bumpers as an "extra weight" advantage.

I highly recommend to newer FIRST teams to build the bumpers. Like I said before, why not? They aren't weighed or measured with your bot...all it does is give you an advantage. If you think about it, robots accused with "ramming" your bot will get a yellow flag, etc. but remember that just because they were penalized, doesn't make the hit not happen. If it happens, it happens. If that hit puts your bot out of commission, then your team winds up more screwed than the ramming team. If you have bumpers, you have a big saftey net for rammers. That way, if someone rams you really hard, they get a yellow flag and your bot doesn't even get scratched .

In 05, the year before the bumpers were implemented, I've seen some bots with broken/bent/cracked chassis, destroyed wheels, broken chains, bent shafts, blown-up gearboxes, the works. All as a result from ramming. The bumpers will definitely protect your bot from these things better than a bot without them.