If you just want to hate on bumpers to no end, this thread is not for you.
Let us assume, since they’ve held the basic format for five years, that the premise of the FRC bumper as we know it is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
However, each year the rules have been tweaked a bit, generally in the favor of allowing teams some flexibility in mounting and configuration to suit their design. With presumably a bit of time to weigh the options (unless Lavery and company have already encrypted the 2011 manuals), perhaps this is the time to float some ideas to the fine folks on Bedford Street. I’m not affiliated with any group or committee on this one, I’m just interested in making FRC more enjoyable for all. (Well, and maybe condensing the “I (love/hate) the bumpers” statements in the lessons learned threads into something actionable should the GDC choose to do so.)
For the sake of argument, we’ll consider solely the merits of the 2010 edition of the bumper rules. (Feel free to make reference to other years’ rules for comparison.)
I’ll break the topic into three questions:
1) Where can the materials used in the construction of bumpers be improved? Is there something other than plywood, fabric, and pool noodles that is more robust, cheaper, or more readily available during build season?
2) Where can the rules on mounting bumpers be adjusted to simplify design frustrations without compromising the bumpers’ effectiveness?
3) Where can the rules on visual content (colors, numbers, etc.) be adjusted for ease of implementation and visual effectiveness?
My personal thoughts on each:
On materials: A perusal of the usual suspects (Walmart, Lowe’s, McMaster-Carr) doesn’t yield anything that seems a feasible replacement. Where I do think the GDC could improve the materials situation is in the timing. We’re approaching summer now; this is when most rational people use pool noodles. It seems likely that 2.5" pool noodles will see usage again next season as bumper material, but we’re often faced with glaring warnings from the GDC (both here and elsewhere) about thinking twice before buying other things. Throwing teams a bone (or, rather, an email blast) once this aspect rules are finalized indicating that bumpers will be present in next year’s game (and that they’ll use such pool noodles) will save a lot of teams a lot of shipping or scrounging without really giving away much of anything about the game itself. (Nobody could look at at “Oh, you’ll need pool noodles for your bumpers” and think “rover wheels and orbit balls” or “traversing the bumps and hanging”.)
On mounting: This season saw a previously-unexperienced condition where the frame perimeter was not necessarily within the bumper zone. It wasn’t until after much gnashing of teeth that many teams realized they’d have to space off their bumpers to get the backing past any fastener heads above or below the bumpers. For shorter robots this year, such as 2815 and 1398, it was an easy solution to get back into compliance–take lengths of the AndyMark C-Base we didn’t use, mount it just 1/4" beyond what we considered “the frame” atop spacers to get the height right, mount the bumpers to that. We had the size, we had the weight–other teams had a much harder go of it. While it’s every team’s responsibility to ensure they’re in compliance (and to allow enough fudge factor just in case they figured incorrectly), allowing for the same minor protrusions you’d allow inside the bumper zone to happen above and below the bumper zone greatly simplifies their mounting on a wide variety of robot configurations commonly seen in FRC.
On displaying information: I’ll grant this much: alliance colors were easy to discern this year with the bumpers. Team numbers, however, were problematic. Done well, with proper planning, they look great. Done poorly, on Thursday at your first event, they look like crap. Too many teams at the Bayou Regional were painting their bumpers with white tempera paint on Thursday, most dutifully observing the no-painting-in-the-pits rule by doing so just outside the Alario Center.
In the absence of telling teams to come prepared to their first events (that’s a knee-slapper!), and in the absence of Logo Loc being available at every regional for custom-screenprinted bumpers, I propose allowing for a 12" zone on each bumper for teams to display the number (sized to spec) along with any other designs (team name, sponsor logos, general styling of the number, etc.) the team desires. I picked 12" for two reasons: first, selfishly, I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit of styling flexibility return to the bumpers. Second, it provides enough fudge factor for an 8.5"x11" piece of paper to be added on top of the bumper fabric. I haven’t tested the durability of this technique on a competition robot (someone wanna try at IRI?), but a piece of paper slid into a sheet protector (available at any office store) and secured with clear tape on the edges should be durable enough to withstand most bumper-to-bumper and bumper-to-field interactions. (Though not directly comparable, 1618 used laminated paper in 2007 for its side panels inside the frame and met with acceptable results even through tipping in the match, transportation, and (mis)handling.) Although better solutions (screenprinting, embroidery, iron-on transfers) exist, explicitly legalizing this technique or a similar one will greatly simplify a quick fix in the pits.
