Wrap-around Bumpers?
Our team has been studying the rules and the discussions regarding bumpers, and we are rather anxious regarding some of the discussions, in particular this one: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=11170.
We want to have one side of our robot open to accept the Orbit balls from the floor. The side we are (currently) using is the narrow side (28" wide). The above forum post implies that we would need two 6" long bumpers to protect the corners of the robot. This would obviously limit our gullet to at most 16" wide, making ball gathering more difficult.
We recognize the need to have all corners fully protected by bumpers, and are wondering if the following would be acceptable. As this picture shows ([URL removed]), could we add an extra 5" piece of pool noodle to our side (38" long) bumpers, wrapped in the bumper cloth, so that the extra part provides the corner protection? We feel that this extra piece would be in compliance with the following rules:
Rule <R08-I> Bumpers must protect all exterior corners of the Bumper Perimeter
Rule <R08-J> Corners and joints between Bumper segments may be filled with short pieces of vertically oriented pool noodle, by wrapping the pool noodles around the corners
Rule <R08-N> Only “soft” parts of the Bumpers (i.e. pool noodles and cloth covering) may extend more than one inch beyond the Bumper Perimeter
Rule <R08-O> The Bumper backing must not extend beyond the “edge” of the Robot
We hope this solution to our problem is acceptable, as the alternative would require a reconsideration of our strategy or a significant redesign of our entire robot.
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