Are the mandatory bumpers helping or hurting?

[Bob Steele]

I believe that most posters are missing an important aspect to bumpers.

They indicate the area of legal contact. If some robots have no bumpers and some do we have no real frame of reference as to where contact is made.

They make it easier for the referees to judge whether contact is made in a legal way rather than outside the bumper area....

I think this is a chief advantage for using them.... legal contact is made at the same or similar point on every robot. Deciding where the contact was initiated (high or low) is easier because that initial contact is not made up against someone's frame...

I like bumpers and my teams have used them from the very beginning.

I do think that different methods of attaching them should be allowed rather than the "t-nuts" and bolts method. The idea would be that externally they are all the same.... cloth covered pool noodles backed up by plywood.

Thickness defined.... weight defined...
method of attachment.... choose and engineer a good one...

thanks!!
have a safe and pleasant year!!!