pic: Bumper Handles

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by joeweber

Also if its not listed as illegal than they are legal until they say something.

What cgmv123 said. Here's the entirety of that rule to remind you:

R21 BUMPERS must be constructed as follows (see Figure 4-7):
A. be backed by ¾ in. (nominal) thick by 5 in. (± ½ in) tall plywood or solid, robust wood. Small clearance pockets and/or access holes in the plywood backing are permitted, as long as they do not significantly affect the structural integrity of the BUMPER.
Particle board or chipboard is not likely to survive the rigors of FIRST Robotics Competition gameplay and thus not compliant with R21-A.
B. hard BUMPER parts allowed per R21-A, R21-E, R21-F, and R21-G must not extend more than 1 in. beyond the FRAME PERIMETER with the exception of minor protrusions such as bolt heads, fastener ends, rivets, etc (Figure 4-5 and Figure 4-7).
C. use a stacked pair of approximately 2 ½ in. round, petal, or hex “pool noodles” (solid or hollow) as the BUMPER cushion material (see Figure 4-7). All pool noodles used in a BUMPER set (e.g. Red set of BUMPERS) must be the same diameter, cross-section, and density (e.g. all round hollow or all hex solid). Cushion material may extend up to 2 ½ in. beyond the end of the plywood (see Figure 4-8). To assist in applying the fabric covering, soft fasteners may be used to attach the pool noodles to the wood backing, so long as the cross section in Figure 4-7 is not significantly altered (e.g. tape compressing the pool noodles) All pool noodles used on a ROBOT must be the same in order to maintain the desired interaction between ROBOTs in the cases of BUMPER-to-BUMPER contact. BUMPERS containing pool noodles of vastly different construction may cause a “ramp” effect when interacting with other BUMPERS.
D. be covered with a rugged, smooth cloth. (multiple layers of cloth and seams are permitted if needed to accommodate R27, provided the cross section in Figure 4-7 is not significantly altered). Silk or bedding are not considered rugged materials, however 1000D Cordura is. Tape (e.g. gaffer’s tape) matching the BUMPER color is allowed to patch small holes on a temporary basis. The cloth must completely enclose all exterior surfaces of the wood and pool noodle material when the BUMPER is installed on the ROBOT. The fabric covering the BUMPERS must be a solid Red or Blue in color. The only markings permitted on the BUMPER fabric cover are the Team number (see R28) and hook-and-loop backed by the hard parts of the BUMPER.
Visually, the Red or Blue must be as close to the corresponding color in the FIRST logo as reasonable (i.e. to a reasonably astute observer, they appear similar).
E. optionally use aluminum angle, as shown in Figure 4-6 or other fasteners (e.g. staples, screws, etc.) to clamp cloth.
F. Optionally use aluminum brackets (i.e. angle or sheet metal) to attach BUMPER segments to each other (see Figure 4-6).
G. must attach to the FRAME PERIMETER of the ROBOT with a rigid fastening system to form a tight, robust connection to the main structure/frame (e.g. not attached with hook-and-loop, tape, or tie-wraps). The attachment system must be designed to withstand vigorous game play. All removable fasteners (e.g. bolts, locking pins, pip-pins, etc.) will be considered part of the BUMPERS.

There's nothing in there about making lifting the robot safer. Your handles aren't part of your rigid attachment system. If the handles were integrated with the cloth cover in some fashion, they'd pass, but they're clearly different material that's been added on to act as handles.

Bumpers are meant to act as bumpers and bumpers only. You're given a certain allowance of FREE weight and space to add bumpers to protect your robot. The rules are so strict here because there's a history of leveraging that free allowance to gain an advantage. More weight is more pushing power, so teams would make bumpers as heavy as possible. I think 3847 is responsible for the wording about not compressing the noodles. They made a set of highly compressed bumpers that probably cushioned collisions much less, but gave them a distinct advantage in pushing matches, as they would wedge under uncompressed bumpers. Just this year, the GDC almost made any velcro at all on bumpers illegal. A pointed Q&A modified that ruling to allow velcro backed by hard bumper parts, but we nearly ended up with a LOT of illegal bumpers in FRC. And so on.

By your own admission, you're gaining an advantage with your bumpers unrelated to their purpose. You have handles on your robot that you otherwise wouldn't have. Yes, you may have passed an inspection with them, but "It passed at my last event." is not going to persuade an inspector that notices you have illegal bumpers. It certainly never persuaded me when I saw something illegal on a robot. Also, it's your responsibility to follow the rules to the best of your knowledge. Inspection determines gross legality, but there's any number of ways you could violate the rules and still be 99% certain to pass inspection. So. You've got a few opinions that your bumper mods aren't legal. You might want to post a Q&A to determine whether they are or not.