We spent a lot of time helping other teams move their bumpers up to pass inspections at their first event.
R22: BUMPERS must be located entirely within the BUMPER ZONE, which is the volume contained between two virtual horizontal planes, 4 in. above the floor and 12 in. above the floor, in reference to the ROBOT standing normally on a flat floor. BUMPERS do not have to be parallel to the floor.
We saw many bots with bumpers below the 4" minimum. Inspection is not a great time to learn about that… :ahh:
Good luck teams!!
I would like to add the blue box and some week 1 observations.
This measurement is intended to be made as if the ROBOT is resting
on a flat floor (without changing the ROBOT configuration), not relative
to the height of the ROBOT from the FIELD carpet.
Examples include:
A. A ROBOT that is at an angle while traversing a DEFENSE has its
BUMPERS outside the BUMPER ZONE. If this ROBOT were virtually
transposed onto a flat floor, and its BUMPERS are in the BUMPER
ZONE, it meets the requirements of R22.
B. A ROBOT deploys a MECHANISM which lifts the BUMPERS outside
the BUMPER ZONE (when virtually transposed onto a flat floor). This
violates R22.
If you have pop down wheels or other similar mechanism, all bumpers must meet the height requirements with those wheels up and down.
If you have a lot of rock (pronounced center wheel/thread) make sure your bumpers are compliant at both extremes of the rock for a safety margin. If one extreme is out of the bumper zone, be prepared to demonstrate how no CG config of your will move you out of the zone. Keep in mind that elements attached to the bumper must also remain in the zone
https://frc-qa.firstinspires.org/Question/594/questionlink
Most creative solution I have seen to this was to “unlock” a set of 2 wheels on a rocker bar when going over the defenses.
We have a robot that has 2 drive trains, wheels and treads, and made sure that if either is deployed we stay withing the bumper zone.