Can bumpers have springs?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Cow Bell Solo

actually it does say, in my opinion and interpretation of the rules. I don't know the exact spot, but they say that the bumpers must be hard mounted to the chassis so I would assume that if there are springs it is not hard mounted. But that can be left up to your own descretion. Check the section talking about the bumpers in the Robot section of the manual

<R08-G>, to be exact. However, it doesn't say hard mount. It says "rigid fastening system" so you get a "tight, robust connection to the main ROBOT structure/frame (e.g. not attached with Velcro!)." If you did it just right, you could do a spring structure and be legal. HOWEVER...

It is very, very difficult to do so and not break one of the other rules, even if you get past <R08-G> at inspection. The Bumper Perimeter part comes to mind--as soon as that frame that you've attached the spring to (one legal way to do it, sort of) collapses towards the middle of the robot, your bumper perimeter changes and your bumper no longer is on the perimeter, violating <R08-L>, <R08-O>, and depending on your specific design, <R08-M>. Any of those on the field is grounds for <S04> to be called. So you have to design around those, too...