Here’s some pictures of our current bumpers:
http://imgur.com/a/yaV42
They are within regulation when it comes to their dimensions and integrity, but they aren’t perfectly aligned along their tops (3rd picture best example) and the numbers on a few of them warp slightly downward. Do you think this current setup could cause us any problems at inspections?
Thank you!
Assuming they are completely within the bumper zone (and comply with all other bumper rules), they’re legal. Many teams compete with far more questionable bumpers than these.
They look like bumpers. If they measure up, then they should be fine.
They look like ours so yes as long as they are 8" per bumper side and withing bumper zone 4"-12" and that part of frame is widest in that zone.
So too me they look good or at least what we feel is legal…of course you need two on back too.
Does R28 B apply here?
Numbers must not wrap around sharp corners (less than 160 degrees) of the FRAME PERIMETER
Cause as is depending upon how you orient it you can read the team number as 6636 or 3666.
Assuming they meet the 8" rule, are contained fully within the bumper zone, are rigidly mounted to the frame perimeter, and are backed by the structure of the robot in the appropriate placed, they appear fine. You seem to be worried that they aren’t perfectly level - note that the last line in R22 states “BUMPERS do not have to be parallel to the floor.”
See the blue box below R28, “There is no prohibition against splitting Team numbers onto different sections of BUMPER.” That’s all they did here - split it into 36-66. The slight ambiguity you mention when looking at the corner of the robot is, I think, why the GDC made splitting numbers illegal a few years back, but teams REALLY didn’t like that, and they decided to go back to making it legal.
Personally, my team always puts the entire number on one bumper segment to avoid that, but what they did here is still legal.
Agreed. They look a bit shorter than 8" back from each corner. If they actually meet this spec, I see no issues with these bumpers, assuming there’s a similar setup on each of the other two corners.
From a team branding standpoint, you may want to look into fitting the full team number on to an 11" segment of bumper (8" + noodle and wood). Having “3666” on one bumper is clearer and more impressive than having “36” (break in bumpers) “66”. Edit: I see Jon said pretty much the same thing, but I’ll leave this here for emphasis)
I guess my interpretation of the blue box is they don’t care about splitting numbers in instances where it doesn’t effect what you think the team number could be. At first glance I read the team number by looking at one corner of the robot and it gave me team 6636 which isn’t right. I dunno, I’d be careful. Then again you did ask for experts so I will let them do the talking.
Hold up figured out why my brain was weird.
So when I compared the different angles what I noticed is that there appears to be a lot of negative space between the 36 and 66 on the front, from an angle it looks like there is less negative space between 66 and 36 so I latched onto that pairing
My team in the past has put the numbers on one segment but the way we are designing our numbers, they are nearly 15" long each. We realized the only way to get them on the front of our robot (the rest has full bumpers) was to split them.
One thing I tell teams about numbers is this…
“You do want to play on Saturday afternoon, right?” If teams in the stands cannot tell by just watching your robot what team you are, then it is unlikely you are going to get picked. In some cases, refs will have a hard time assessing penalties to the right robot if you have a team on the field that has a similar number.
Please be sure to measure bumpers from the corner of the frame. That is what we will do during inspection. 8" from the frame corner is the specification.
A picture looking straight down showing bumper supports would be helpful.