Hi, I am wondering if there is any rule that prohibits attaching material directly to bumpers. I looked in the game manual and couldnt find anything that particularly says this. We are looking to add polycarb around our robot frame to deflect notes, and the easiest way would be to screw polycarb directly to our bumper wood. Is this legal? Thanks
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Someone else was already discussing this elsewhere, but the short answer is: If it isn’t specifically allowed for bumpers by R408, then it isn’t legal. You could add the polycarb to the robot frame, but if you add it to the bumpers (except as part of a mounting system that’s still under weight) then you should run into issues at inspection.
How big is your Frame Perimeter? You might be able to attach it to the frame instead.
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The natural response to this is that the polycarb isn’t technically part of the bumpers and isn’t subject to R408. By my reading, it’s actually R102 that then makes this illegal, as there’s no way to have something mounted to the top of your bumpers and simultaneously be inside your frame perimeter for the start of the match.
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If it’s mounted to the bumpers, it’s part of the bumpers and illegal per R408 as Eric said. You have to remember that bumpers are removable (R404), so anything that comes with the bumpers is part of the bumpers. If the deflectors were attached to both the bumpers and the robot, and were unfastened from the robot rather than the bumper when removing bumpers, you could make the argument that they were mounting hardware and thus legal. Whether that argument would fly is a whole other question.
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R408E is best shot to make this legal as you seemed to ask the question, if you can convince your RI or LRI that it is there to clamp the bumper cloth to the wood. R408F is possible, but even less likely. In either case (or any I’ve missed), if it is outside the frame perimeter in STARTING CONFIGURATION, it has to somehow be justified as part of the tightly regulated BUMPERS. I wouldn’t count on it, for sure. As an RI, I wouldn’t accept either argument without consulting the LRI. Do you feel lucky?
An alternate route to what you want: Make this skid plate part of the robot. It has to start inside the frame perimeter, but there are no rules preventing it from popping under the bumper at the beginning of the match and just staying there, and fouls from such a device seem unlikely. In 2017 STEAMworks, my team (3946) used a player station intake ramp that extended from inside the frame perimeter to the “bumper perimeter” powered by a pair of spring hinges. Depending on your bumper height and how far out the skid plate extends, this might be just as simple or really complicated.
And OBTW, while not nearly as robust, corrugated plastic (CP) is lighter and more slippery than polycarbonate. We prototyped the ramp in CP, and built in polycarbonate. We switched back for competition for the slippery feature.
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Yeah, I’d personally steer clear of anything that sticks out above or below the noodles and fabric without a clear and exclusive mounting purpose. I was just stretching the rules hypothetically.
In the past, I did once move the bumper CG several inches by using very heavy fasteners and brackets on one side and very light fasteners on the other, but the heavy side was also where most of the big collisions occurred. No problems getting through inspection.
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Or it can BE the Frame Perimeter…