Tilted Bumpers

Technical
1

We have a gap in the front of the robot where we want to bring in game pieces and plan on driving onto the charge station from the side of the robot. The opening side on the robot has the minimum 6" corner bumpers and the sides have full bumpers. So, we want the intake sides to be as low as possible (as low as 1") to help with orienting the cone, but the sides to be high (2") to ease getting on the charge station. Can the 6" section run from 1" of the ground to 2" or does it have to be some sort of a parallelogram? All of the bumper would be inside the envelope of being below 7.5"

image

2

I believe the only rules on this are that the cross-section should be approximately consistent with the cross-section shown in figure 9-7, and that the entire bumper assembly must be in the bumper zone, no higher than 7.5 inches off the ground.

Unless the cross-section is significantly changed, there is no rule specifying that the bumpers have to be parallel to the floor or otherwise uniform.

With that said, if you’re planning to have your bumpers tilted like this, I would suggest cutting parallelegram pieces so that the wood can be parallel to the frame on the sides.

3

I think as long a your are within the zone at all places and you meet the rest of the bumper rules you should be good.

There is a world champion from a few years back that had some pretty significantly tilted bumpers.

image

4

So it looks like the ends of their bumpers were vertical inferring a parallelogram type construction.

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5

The bumpers don’t need to be parallel to the floor (R402), so the left side of this picture is fine.

I don’t see any specific rules that says the outside has to be parallel to the robot frame, but as that is the standard, you might want to Q&A the right side of your picture before you go to an event.

6

I think they were a parallelogram if I remember correctly. @Mr_Rip can you confirm?

You would likely need the sides where the noodles to stack to be vertical or near vertical so you would not be making a type of wedge. that would lift up other robots.

7

I recommend against making any robot dimension exactly the limit with no tolerance for error. What are you going to do if the Robot Inspector says you only made it 5⅞"?

8

Thanks for the insights guys! Parallelogram it is. And definitely at least 6.01":slight_smile:

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9

You’re measuring the projection of the bumper onto the frame perimeter, right? Not the distance from the internal corner of the bumper. :wink:

10

Will the tilted bumper section cover 6" of the frame over the whole height of the bumper section? Please see the post by @bovlb for how it is measured.

I hope for your sake that your manufacturing processes are sufficiently accurate to justify such confidence.

11

Also watch out for R410A:

Additionally, any gap between the backing material and the frame:
A. must not be greater than ¼ in. (~6 mm) deep or

This argues for the parallelogram approach.

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