Bumper question

[pureFloat]

We've designed our robot and its bumpers in CAD. Unfortunately, the way we've designed it creates a couple of inches of exposed frame underneath the bumpers (I've attached a picture showing this). Is this against the rules? We want to know if it's necessary to change this aspect of design before committing.



Thanks for any help

-Team 3506

[EricH]

Exposed frame under the bumpers would be considered protected by the bumpers. As long as the bumpers are within the bumper zone, and supported by adequate structure (see bumper rules), I don't see any reason this would not pass inspection.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

The two rules that dominate in this situation is the bumpers must be mounted on the Frame Perimeter and be entirely in the 2" to 10" above the floor zone. There is no dimension on the bumpers in your drawing but they appear to meet the rules above.

[pureFloat]

Thanks for everyone's help!

[Tristan Lall]

It's illegal for another reason. See figure 4-5, top left and figure 4-3, top left. You've drawn one of those two scenarios (but I can't tell which, because there's no top view), both of which are illegal—the former because the corner is unprotected, and the latter because there is hard material extending too far beyond the corner. (You can tell it's one of those, because the end face is uninterrupted. If it were one of the legal configurations, the bumper backing would be stepped back and only the cushion would be in the corner.)

Correct it by using any of the other ("OK") examples in fig. 4-5.

(Note that the fig. 4-5, top left case has been variously legal and illegal in past years. The fig. 4-3, top left case has always been illegal.)