Can the bumpers be swiss cheesed?
no. the wood must be solid.
you can have small pockets that don’t go all the way through to help it sit more flush.
also, why would you want to? what problem are you trying to solve?
Our robot was a bit over weight however if we cannot swiss cheese the bumpers, then we are looking at other solutions. We are currently in the process of possibly changing the type of wheels because our Mechanum drive wasn’t working so well. Changing the wheels would give us more space and would remove a lot of weight, about 12 pounds.
The BUMPERS don’t count in the ROBOT weight.
R04. The ROBOT weight must not exceed 120 lbs. When determining weight, the basic ROBOT structure and all elements of all additional MECHANISMS that might be used in different configurations of the ROBOT shall be weighed together.
For the purposes of determining compliance with the weight limitations, the following items are excluded:
A. ROBOT BUMPERS
B. ROBOT battery and its associated half of the Anderson cable quick connect/disconnect pair (including no more than 12 in. (~30 cm) of cable per leg, the associated cable lugs, connecting bolts, and insulation)
Thanks GaryVoshol! That was extremely helpful!
R31 (see https://firstfrc.blob.core.windows.net/frc2017/Manual/Sections/08-Robot.pdf#18) covers this in detail, especially in the figure.
any gap between the backing material and the frame:
A. must not be greater than ¼ in. (~6mm) deep, or
B. not more than 8 in. (~20cm) wide
If for the corners of our robot we have cut noodles, do they have to be covered by a fabric?
R29. “The cloth must completely enclose all exterior surfaces of the wood and pool noodle
material when the BUMPER is installed on the ROBOT.”