pic: Team 675 2011 Robot CAD

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Hellfeier675

The frame perimeter is when you wrap a string around the robot and whatever the string touches is now defined as area for needed bumper coverage. Thus if we have a gap that is not touched by the string, we don't need to cover that area with bumpers. Thus, looking at all rules from 2008-2009, the bumper definitions are exactly the same, we would argue that having this open area in the bumpers is in fact legal. In previous year's robot we have indeed had these gaps in the frame and it was legal to not cover that area with bumpers. 2010 was the same way, except the bumper zone was higher than most people's kickers, thus most teams had bumpers around their whole robot, however there were a few that did not and it was still legal.

You better bring more plywood, pool noodles, and fabric to your first regional, because you're going to need to make a new front bumper.

Originally Posted by The Game Manual, Rule R07A

A. BUMPERS must provide complete protection of the entire FRAME PERIMETER of the
ROBOT (i.e. BUMPERS must wrap entirely around the ROBOT). As part of the 100%
coverage, BUMPERS must protect all exterior corners of the FRAME PERIMETER. For
adequate protection, a full segment of BUMPER must be placed on each side of the corner
(see Figure 3-2)

The key part there is the 100% coverage part.

The whole "wrap a string around the robot" thing is IMHO a poorly worded way of FIRST trying to communicate that the frame perimeter that the bumpers mount to must be a convex polygon.