I’ve been digging through bumper rules lately and was curious if, from an inspection perspective, would bumpers which touched the ground slightly be considered legal? I suspect a lot of teams will be making very low bumpers and I’m curious if it could become an issue during inspections.
That shouldn’t be an issue as long as the fabric fastening (think staples) don’t dig into the carpet. The only rule is that the bumpers can’t be articulated and under 7-1/2" in height from the floor. Aside from that, you should be good. Though I would keep in mind that resistance from the bumpers potentially dragging on the floor could add to battery drain…
The BUMPER ZONE is “the volume contained between the floor and a virtual horizontal plane 7½ in. (~19 cm) above the floor” so unless your bumpers go under the floor they are fine. Now bumpers dragging on the ground might get damaged and then break other bumper rules, but I digress.
Thanks for the info, dragging on the ground certainly isn’t our intent but they do sit quite close 
Be careful on tolerances if you plan to go as low as you can. We had to adjust ours already by 1/8" because it was dragging a little when driving with our practice bot.
1 Like
Since 2017, no issues from BUMPER ZONE considerations. Depending on your bumper fabric, you might also get some static electricity issues in addition to those mentioned above.
1 Like
There could be minor wrinkles/bumps in the carpet that would catch on your bumpers. Would that throw off your driving?
And you really don’t want to snag some tape off the floor - when that gets wrapped around moving parts (like wheels) it creates a huge mess.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.