R410       *Bumpers must be supported. Bumpers must be supported by the structure/frame of the Robot (see Figure 9‑9). To be considered supported, a minimum of ½ in. (~13 mm) at each end of each Bumper wood segment must be backed by the Frame Perimeter (≤¼ in. gap, ~6mm). “Ends” exclude hard Bumper parts which extend past the Frame Perimeter permitted by R408-B. Additionally, any gap between the backing material and the frame:

R401       *Bumpers should protect all corners. Robots are required to use Bumpers to protect all outside corners of the Frame Perimeter. For adequate protection, at least 6 in. (~16 cm) of Bumper must be placed on each side of each outside corner (see Figure 9‑3) and must extend to within ¼ in. (~6 mm) of the Frame Perimeter corner. If a Frame Perimeter side is shorter than 12 in. (~31 cm), that entire FRAME PERIMETER side must be protected by a Bumper (see Figure 9‑4). A round or circular Frame Perimeter, or segment of the Frame Perimeter, is considered to have an infinite number of corners, therefore the entire frame or frame segment must be completely protected by Bumpers.

R409       *Fill Bumper corners. Corner joints between Bumpers must be filled with pool noodle material. Examples of implementation are shown in Figure 9‑8.

R405       *Bumpers indicate your alliance. Each Robot must be able to display red or blue Bumpers to reflect their Alliance color, as assigned in the Match schedule distributed at the event (as described in Section 11.1 MATCH Schedules). Bumper markings visible when installed on the Robot, other than the following, are prohibited: