We are helping a new team this year, and I believe we have run into a unique problem with bumpers.
None of the sides of the robot are six inches long (It’s a 12 sided 'bot).
And the GDC seem very strict about not putting plywood into the corners.
So how do we build bumpers that are more than six inches long and do not have plywood in the corners. Even if we made two bumpers that each covered half the robot, those bumpers would have plywood in the corners.
How do we overcome the problem?
you could just build four bumpers and make a square around it, im not really sure what you mean by plywood in the corners
I believe your only real options are redoing the frame of your robot, or having the bumpers securely fastened in a square shape, entirely ignoring the other 8 sides. Securely fastening them may be a challenge though.
Post a picture here and you may get more help.
The situation may not be as dire as it sounds. I believe this Q&A helps explain what, exactly, is meant by no plywood in the corners. So long as your “corner” is covered by a full thickness of pool noodle and fabric, you are okay.
The rule was worded (and diagrams drawn) with rectangular robots in mind. You may (and please remember, this isn’t the Q&A, so please get a ruling on this before you ship your robot) be able to construct the bumpers in such a way that you have one pool noodle length covering three, four, or more sides of your robot by using a segmented and mitred piece of plywood. As the outer edge of the plywood would form a continuous edge, which is continually covered by a noodle and fabric, when bolted to the robot, this may be considered a continuous, rather than segmented, bumper. It would certainly meet the cross-sectional diagram in the manual.
Alternatively, you could put six (or seven or eight as needed) inch segmented bumpers on six sides of the robot, and demonstrate that when drawing a line perpendicular to the bumper back to the robot frame that you have covered more than 2/3 of the perimeter.
In any case, I sincerely hope that you will find a way to make the robot meet the bumper requirements as I’m looking forward to seeing non-traditional drive trains and robot frames developed to meet this year’s challenge.
Jason
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EDIT: Check out THIS Q&A… you should be okay!**