Anybody else getting these rips? Every corner of both sets of our competition bumpers are cut like this at this height. On some corners the noodle beneath is even gouged. Trying to figure out if there’s an area of the field we should be avoiding.
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What height are your bumpers at?
Could it have been an intake from a specific team?
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This is your most likely answer
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We had that happen in 2016. It turned out that it was a door that we had to pass through at one of our competitions that had a screw head sticking out from the door latch and the robot on the cart was at just the right height to catch on this screw head.
Robots with bumpers on are just about the maximum width to get through a typical man-door (and sometimes you need to squeeze through). So you may want to look at doors that you have needed to pass through or other things that you might have passed next to while the robot was on the cart.
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Our bumpers don’t have rips like that, but they do have holes, at about the same height. Also, the holes are inline with each other.
Could this be the result of the plates that support the Hanger trusses?
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No, those are lower than these slashes, even from the field with bumpers dragging the carpet. If it’s part of the field, I’d guess a fastener (screw, screw head, tie wrap). A door or intake seems more likely.
I want to second this having done field assembly at a district event. The bent sheet metal top-hat sections that the truss is bolted to are less than 2" off the ground and have smooth edges. It would have to be multiple really bad burrs to catch all 4 corners of the the bumpers.
YES! Both our bumpers are torn up way more than normal. We have a slash just like that on our blue ones.
The plastic ramps at the lower hub exits?
But… We have had damage as shown in previous years, it’s a high stress corner of the assembly when riding up on another robot under heavy contact.
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Our bumpers are a little over 0.75" above the floor. I had initially suspected a stray ziptie or barb on the launchpad, but I’m not sure the heights actually align.
I hadn’t thought about doorways. Our cart is higher than most, so it would be very likely we are hitting something that other teams are not. We have also experienced heavy defense so I considered another robot, but I can’t imagine the same robot hitting and damaging almost all our corners, especially with the intake rules this year.
Thanks for the ideas. We will definitely look around and be vigilant.
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Most intakes that I have seen are pretty high (designed to not get much lower to the ground than the top of the ball).
In looking at the field elements, there are numerous polycarb panels on both the hub and the launch pads on the truss. Having done field build at events in 2017, 2018 and 2019, it is pretty typical that these polycarb panels are attached to the metal structure with zip-ties and the positions of those panels likely would have zip-ties at about that height. I would always spend the extra effort to make sure that the “head” of the zip tie was located inside the structure, but this was actually never part of the official instructions on how to assemble the field.
It might be a good idea to walk through the field looking for these exposed heads at your next event. If you see any, you can probably just ask that they fix it. It is actually a bigger issue with people cutting themselves on these (which is why I have always been careful about how I install them) and if you point that out, I’m sure they will address it.
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During my time with electrical work, I got scratched up so many times I just stopped cutting them.
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What material are your bumpers? They Look like duck cloth.
When did you notice the damage?
We noticed it a little during Columbus and got worse at Tippecanoe.
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Standard AndyMark bumper material. At least I think so (it’s been in our shop for a while).
This has happened to us in the past and the damage seems very consistent with improper zip-tie placement. I think it was 2016 the field at one of our events was constructed heads out and we had to re-make our bumpers after the event due to almost identical damage to what you are showing in your photos.
From watching a few of your match videos my money would be on the zip-ties on the launch pad polycarb.
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We have tears on the front [pick up] side of the bumper. We assume that the damage is from the swerve drive defense that we are receiving. They do pivot very quickly…
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