May bumpers move?

[Russ Beavis]

Mobile bumpers have not been explicitly declared to be illegal in any rules or Q&A responses (to the best of my knowledge). Be VERY careful, however -

1) bumpers must be mounted to a solid structural element in your robot and not a flimsy actuator
2) the bumper perimeter must ALWAYS be at or beyond the reach of every other part of your robot
3) you need to protect BOTH sides of EVERY vertex in your bumper perimeter and the corners can never have any "hard" parts.
4) bumper perimeter must always stay within the 28"x38" envelope.

You should consider posting a question on the FRC Q&A regarding bumper mounting to additional "shock absorbers" within your robot. Rule R08-G (ie #1 above) requires that the bumpers be "tight" and "robust" in their mounting to the robot structure. Regardless, why bother with the complexity associated with something intentionally moving under impact? I could imagine some interesting uses of the extra energy but I'm skeptical.

Also, I have trouble imagining a corner that moves and still fully complies with #3 above.

Russ

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Russ Beavis

Mobile bumpers have not been explicitly declared to be illegal in any rules or Q&A responses (to the best of my knowledge). Be VERY careful, however -

1) bumpers must be mounted to a solid structural element in your robot and not a flimsy actuator
2) the bumper perimeter must ALWAYS be at or beyond the reach of every other part of your robot
3) you need to protect BOTH sides of EVERY vertex in your bumper perimeter and the corners can never have any "hard" parts.
4) bumper perimeter must always stay within the 28"x38" envelope.

You should consider posting a question on the FRC Q&A regarding bumper mounting to additional "shock absorbers" within your robot. Rule R08-G (ie #1 above) requires that the bumpers be "tight" and "robust" in their mounting to the robot structure. Regardless, why bother with the complexity associated with something intentionally moving under impact? I could imagine some interesting uses of the extra energy but I'm skeptical.

Also, I have trouble imagining a corner that moves and still fully complies with #3 above.

Russ

Russ is once again correct. I've seen 3 Q&As addressing movable bumpers, and they are allowed provided that all other considerations are met. The fun part is the corners, though.

[mrnoble]

hold on- the bumpers must stay within the 28 x 38 perimeter?

never mind- see what you're saying. The "bumper perimeter" is the maximum dimensions of the robot. The bumpers can extend a max of 3 1/2 inches beyond the perimeter (1 inch for the hard back). whew. just panicked for a mo'.

[GaryVoshol]

I agree. While there is no rule directly against it, I think it is a practical impossibility. If you move either a whole side of a robot or a partial side of the robot, you create a gap in the bumper perimeter, meaning at least one corner is not protected on two sides.

[Tristan Lall]

Regarding corners in flexible bumpers, you could install a series of short bumpers on appropriate structural backing, with door hinges between them. That would at least allow some freedom of motion.

This year, the elements of a "multi-part attachment system" that remain permanently attached to bumpers can be counted as part of the bumpers—this would probably qualify.