legality of bolt and screw heads breaking plane of chassis meeting bumpers

[Mr. Lim]

Okay, some responses in this thread are causing me to be confused. I thought this year fastener heads and small protrusions were NOT considered part of the FRAME PERIMETER as per the definition provided in Section 8, Page 4:

FRAME PERIMETER – the polygon defined by the outer-most set of exterior vertices on the ROBOT (without the BUMPERS attached) that are within the BUMPER ZONE. To determine the FRAME PERIMETER, wrap a piece of string around the ROBOT at the level of the BUMPER ZONE - the string describes this polygon. Note: to permit a simplified definition of the FRAME PERIMETER and encourage a tight, robust connection between the BUMPERS and the FRAME PERIMETER, minor protrusions such as bolt heads, fastener ends, rivets, etc are excluded from the determination of the FRAME PERIMETER.

Now my interpretation is that this means that bolt and screw heads are OK if they extend past the FRAME PERIMETER - regardless of whether they are within the bumper zone or outside of it (i.e, this exception is not limited to bolt heads and screw heads between 10" and 16" above ground level).

Why would I interpret this in this way?

1) Because the definition doesn't explicitly say the bolt head exclusion is limited the bumper zone area.

2) If the bolt head exclusion only applied to the bumper zone, robots with extended bolt heads above or below the bumper zone would just shim their frames to artificially extend the FRAME PERIMETER - exactly what Art Dutra suggested above - and completely counter to the intent of "encouraging a tight, robust connection between the BUMPERS and the FRAME PERIMETER."

However, these bolt heads and screw heads must STILL comply with the overall 36" x 28" maximum dimension. Meaning you might have bolt heads that stick out of your frame, but you still must FIT IN THE BOX.