Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

What is your craziest story about robot inspection?

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I can't remember what year and what regional but .......

A rookie team actually brought the kit of parts to their first regional. They thought they were suppost to build the robot at the event. With a lot of help from surrounding teams, they were able to compete as a box on wheels.

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Last year, 10,000 Lakes Regional we had 5 CIM motors on our robot and the maximum was 4. We spent all of the first day taking out 2 of them.

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Last year at a regional in the western US, a team built a robot with illegal motors in the drive system. In spite of urgings from inspectors and offers of assistance of several teams, they refused to change their robot. Needless to say, the robot did not pass inspection and was not permitted on the field.

This team sent human players to every qualification match and they found themselves near the top of the standings at the end of Friday! After a loss on Saturday, they dropped just out of the top 10 for alliance selections. About midway into alliance selections, they were listed as the top seed among the available teams. They were picked by a team that had not scouted and the team with the illegal robot accepted the invitation! :ahh:

In the elimination round, they were replaced by a backup robot.

This year's rule of issuing zero seeding points to teams whose robot has not passed inspection for the match will prevent this from happening.

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Annapolis Aim High game. One kid shows up with the kitbot in pieces. We got him running.

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Philly 2005 a team had 4 globe motors on their robot. I was not an inspector at the event but saw this 20 ft away and casually asked an inspector if they had passed inspection, they had...

Last year at Hartford we had one rookie team with serious electrical issues. As I was approaching to see if they were ready for me to inspect the robot I saw some sparks from some poorly insulated wiring, I decided they were not yet ready but started the mechanical inspection fter they removed the battery.

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I remember both of these. Good times!

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I had a team try this on me last year. I'm happy to say that they did not pass inspection till they had removed two of the motors.

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In Seattle last year, a team brought, what I thought at the time, their rolling tool box to the scale. They then put the tool box on the scale and I discovered that the 180 pound item on the scale, was, actually their robot.

I called a few other veteran mentors over and told the team. 'These people are here to help you loose 60 pounds of robot.'

-Jim

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This happened at Portland this year. They showed up with the kitbot. The SWAT kids and a bunch of other students spent all of Thursday building this robot, which actually ended up doing pretty well.

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We were once told it was illegal to have two modified AndyMark shifters on our robot. The sticking point wasn't the modified though, it was the pair of $350 items.

"You can not pass us, but I can see a dozen robots from right here that won't pass either." ;)

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Whatever happened to it?

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Years ago, my team did a massive redesign after a pre-ship scrimmage and shipped a robot without a single wire attached. Needless to say, it was a busy day in the pits for me and my electrical team... We still had many wires loose when, at the urging of the inspectors, we began inspection (it was supposed to be a partial mechanical only).

I was soldering a wire to a motor and had a student crimping a ring lug on another wire when the inspector (on the other side of the robot from us) got to the power-up part of the checklist and told the students to power up the robot...

Which they did...

I was not a happy camper...

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I'm sure there are probably a few from Arizona this year, due to the long line... But I'll put a couple in there.

I'm inspecting a team from Mexico. It's sometime Friday morning (I think--might have been afternoon), and they bring their robot over. I quickly spot their pneumatics issues (vent valve is in the wrong place, which is an easy fix). But then I noticed something else--their casters were mounted at the edge of the frame, creating <R16> and <G30> violations every time they swing. Move them inside? Not easy. One of the other inspectors went to find a few parts for a quick redesign. A few minutes later: "Here are the brackets, now we just need the wheels."

They got that fixed and had some lexan from another team (donated to form an upper shield) ready. I noticed another issue--the penetration restriction. Showed them how to fix that, they went off to their pit to take care of it. I went over there a while later with a soccer ball and a tape measure, and they hadn't put it on yet--it was ready, just not on. I helped them place the barrier, then went back to inspection. A few minutes later, they came to find an inspector. This time, they passed.

It can also get crazy when the FTA wants to know when the "You can bring your robot in, but it has to be in pieces" was enacted, while you're in the middle of inspecting a team. (He got the answer after I was done with that inspection.)

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At VCU this year, 619 wasn't doing very well - we basically had to rebuild the robot on Thursday - and by noon on Friday the inspectors were doing everything they could to let us go out on the field. So they let us sit on the field (and gain seeding points) with the bumpers ziptied to the robot - provided we promised not to drive with it that way. We didn't, and someone gave us a safety token for "not endangering other teams." :p

At the same regional, I watched 339 and the inspectors argue for about 30 minutes over whether the red light proximity sensors from previous years were legal. The inspectors didn't think they were because they required a 12V supply but didn't have the necessary gauge wire for a 20 amp breaker. The problem is, there smallest 12V supply on the robot is a 20 amp breaker. Eventually, the inspectors found a clause in the manual that permitted the use of any wiring provided it came already attached to the device.

And of course, I can't count the number of times I've witnessed the classic: "OMG WE'RE SO OVERWEIGHT - oh wait, the battery's in...whew." :D

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There were a number of teams at Arizona that could have passed weight with both battery and bumpers aboard. :D

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People from team 360, 1983, 2046, and 488, all brought sawzalls to the robot teams pits and basically cut the thing in half.

The starting robot was steal plate on a tall wooden frame. The ending robot was lexan on a short wooden frame.

-Jim

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at Boilermaker last year, i remember a rookie bot with bumpers held together with zip ties. i have NO clue how they passed inspection.

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In 2007 we built our robot for the 60 inch tall, 110 lb class. We were a dedicated ramp-bot with plywood ramps. We uncrated our robot and once we could start inspection we went to get it sized and weighed. We were just under 60 inches, but we were about 30 lbs overweight. We had to cut a foot off of our robot and cheese-hole the plywood ramps. We barely made inspection, but we didn't trust the ramps for any high-speed climbing.

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Not a bid deal, but a scary one....

971 was next to us at SVR this year, and their inspector was pretty sure two regulators were illegal.

Also, one of our inspectors seemed fond of saying, "I don't know what this is, but did you guys do it right?"

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At one regional this year, there was a team who was still building their drive system all day on Thursday. We inspectors would check with them about every 30-40 minutes, and they would always say "we are ok, thanks for the offer to get us help, but we are fine".

After the pits closed on Thursday, we went to look at their robot in more detail. They still did not have their drive system wired up. However, they had partially completed their neon light system, and they also had a Globe motor (illegal) and an old Window motor (illegal).

I left them a note, saying that these two motors were not allowed this year. One of the inspectors was assigned to them in the morning, and they finally were focused on getting their robot driving.

Andy B.

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One year, a robot inspector asked us to flip our power switch 180*, while asking us to keep the wire orientation the same way. I never did get that... :eek: :eek: :eek:

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Hey, even if it didn't move, at least it was going to look cool, right? :D

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My first year mentoring was for the 2008 Overdrive competition. Reading the rules (after the robot was finished) we discover the rules that state the light from the IFI controller must be visible from three free in front of the robot. The robot had an extremely low center of gravity and the IFI controller was on the bottom of the robot about 3/8” off the ground. The robot looked great and we didn’t want to cut it up to make the IFI visible. The rules stated that the “light” from the IFI board must be visible. We made a placard with the same wording as the on the IFI controller with a 3D printer and piped the “light” up with fiber optics to the placard. Al Skeirkiewicz probably remembers this one. The inspection judges said the IFI controller was not visible and said it did not pass. We argued that the rules state that the “light” must be visible and the “light” is visible. It was the actual light from the LEDs. In the end the judges said it was very clever idea and let us compete but told us that if we went to the national competition, we may not pass inspection. BTW we also won the GM Industrial Design award with that robot.

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In Oregon last year there was a team who behaved like that all day long on Thursday. By Friday morning they still did not have their wheels on the robot... the motor controllers were not wired up... they were in the first match... and with help from a team (I really wish I could remember which one) got through inspection and made it to the field in time.

-Jim

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Had a rookie team in Arizona this year, in great position for the inspectors to watch them. They come out of the crate--and I'm thinking, there is no way that they'll pass inspection. Obvious ball control mechanisms above the bumper zone, active no less, and their bumper was a piece of PVC covered with something that wasn't pool noodle and was held on by wires. To their advantage, they had used the kit frame and a lot of VEX metal.

1013 showed up and spent all day Thursday getting them more legal. Sometime around noon on Friday, they passed.

Oh, and the Arizona pits were held open an extra half-hour on Thursday, to let us finish the teams in the inspection line. Friday morning, we still had two teams who hadn't started. They both got partials before the pits opened on a visual inspection.

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In 2004, 971 put all the fuses for the robot on the negative side of the victors, instead of the positive side. Needless to say, we spent a fair amount of Thursday rewiring that part of the bot.

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I got a million of em!
I am leaving the rookie stories out of this post since it is not really fair. So here goes...
Eight CIM motors. "Rules says you can use the KOP motors and identical spares."
Non KOP motors because the KOP motors aren't strong enough
Robot is 6-8 inches too long.
Robot is 150+ lbs because they used a bathroom scale and interpolated the readings for each wheel.
Robot is 136 lbs and the engineering mentor tells his students not to listen to the LRI, they will play anyway and no one can stop them. Queuers do not like robots with no inspection sticker.
Robots with two or more batteries.
Robot with a 2" x 40" pneumatic actuator, inspection turned it into ballast.
Fifteen wheels on the floor last year. OK, it passed but it didn't drive very well.
Bumpers at last year's elevation, in black, with no numbers, made out of 1x6 pine.
Circular saw blades for wheels, "But they really grab the carpet!".
Aluminum box for chassis with the radio inside. Has been happening for years.
Battery used for counter weight on a moving arm to help hold robot on pipe. This was actually legal that year.
Chain sprockets used for ball handler. Reminded team of rule specifying no damage to field or game pieces.
Bumpers made of one pool noodle to conserve weight. Found steel inside bumper.
SUV winch for lifting with 1/2 HP motor. This year was not the first year for this.
Bumpers made out of stained and varnished 2x6 lumber. Furniture grade but not legal.
The entire robot from the 120 amp breaker on, wired with #18 wire. "We have tons of it so we used it."
I could go on and on....

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Our electronics team wired the game controller wrong. It shouldn't have passed inspection. Due to this we didn't run throughout Traverse City. We also passed inspection at Wayne State. Shortly through Detroit some of the field crew found the problem.

It was a sad moment when we realized that the inspectors should have noticed the problem and not let us pass due to the issue.

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This year, a mentor walked up to me (inspector) in the pits:

"The team next to us showed up and dropped off their robot and left. It's last year's robot. I remember because we helped them build it here at last year's event."

Sure enough, in their pit was a robot that had slick wheels and a trailer hitch on it....

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I've always wanted to do that, because I know it would bother people. To bad my 2008 trebuchet with a battery counter weight got over ruled...

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1) I inspected a robot... in Atlanta... that didn't have a pressure relief valve anywhere in their pneumatic system. Fortunately they had it with them in their supplies, and were quite appreciative to have someone explain what it was and what it did. It wouldn't have been crazy to see this at a regional... but in Atlanta? Thank goodness for inspections, eh?

2) A crazy good story, though was the time we carelessly re-used a 3/4" pneumatic cylinder on our Rack'n'Roll robot that was either 1/2" too long or too short for the pneumatic specs of that year's competition. It cleared tech in Portland no problem (hey... I'd missed it, too... it was a pretty minor thing) but got nabbed by the very careful inspectors at GTR. We had a spare at home that was the right size... but home was on the other side of the country.

Tristan Lall was the lead inspector. He took a look at the problem, pulled out his cell phone, made a couple calls and said, "Talk to ______ at ______. Here's the address, they have a legal one waiting for you." A mentor ran out at lunch, and we were legal that afternoon. The robot actually performed better with the slightly shorter stroke cylinder. Who woulda thunk it?

3) I was at a competition where a team was 30 pounds overweight. Not a big deal... except they were an all-girls team and quickly became known as "The girls with the weight problem." at least until we realized how easily that could be taken out of context. (If only I could shed weight as quickly as they did!)

Jason

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[quote=Al Skierkiewicz;941858
Circular saw blades for wheels, "But they really grab the carpet!".[/quote]

OMG We ARE Battlebots !!!

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In 2003 I was a rookie mentor on a legacy team (294, world champions in '01) at the Arizona Regional. At 6 PM on Thursday the robot had failed inspection a couple of times and we were working off the list of items needing fixing. The pits were open 'til 8 that evening, and I was asked to stay with a couple of students to finish up and get the robot inspected while the rest of the team went out to dinner. Just before the pits closed, we got the robot up to the inspection station, and found one more item needing fixing. The pneumatic system pressure gage was mounted under the robot facing the floor so it couldn't be read! That's how a rookie mentor pays his dues.

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Reminds me of the last team to pass at Arizona this year. They'd been trying to fix their pneumatics, they had a match coming up, and they thought they had it. Two inspectors (myself being one) were inspecting their robot, and each had one gauge. They power up...and both gauges read 120 PSI! OK, let's dial it down to 60 PSI, guys. They did--and both gauges read 60 PSI. The first place we looked for the problem? The regulator. Sure enough, the input was going into an output, and I think the gauge was in the input slot--in short, 90 degrees from the way it should have been oriented. With a match coming up, we had them pull the compressor breaker. They later got their pneumatics working right and reinspected.

Oh, and another team had pneumatics--but had no vent valve and no relief valve. Uh-oh. The next time they came around, they had both.

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In the Israeli regional a team had passed inspection with their bumper perimeter not covering the entire frame perimeter due to having a rotating kicker. I saw this on the field and was very highly amused.

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Two items from our robot this year:
- Both sets of bumpers weigh exactly the same - this drew a little surprise from the inspectors!
- Al's gonna hate this... but our radio is essentially buried in the middle of a big aluminum box this year. From testing though, we had no signal problems, and no problems on the field!

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I'm never quite sure what to think when our team has left a Championship inspector scratching his head but using the word, innovative. The actual sentence was, " I've never seen that before but it is definitely innovative."

It had to do with our shooter a few years back and eventually, it passed inspection. After that experience, innovative became one of my favorite words.

A side story to the experience - one of the pit crew members was a senior on the team but a rookie member. We still talk about his year on the team and the contributions he made towards the design and building of that robot. He had never been to the Championship before and it was a huge learning experience for him as an individual and as a member of the team. When we left Atlanta, he was better for it. A lot had to do with working with the inspector, listening to him, and with talking with and observing other teams. It's one reason I hold ChrisH in such high regard. Because of the impact he made on a student's experience in Atlanta.

Jane

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My freshman year(Aimhigh), our shooter had two motors on it, and we were 3 pounds over weight, and the specs said each motor was a 4 pound motor, so we took one off, re-weigh, and we were heavier than before...

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This year. Our weight was fluctuating between inspections without us changing ANYTHING. The scale was confirmed to not be reading exactly right, but the numbers were changing!

Let's just say that parkay floors and standing too close to the scale = bad.

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We had bright yellow painted numbers on our bumpers because we had a nice mom who was happy to work with two students to do the numbering. The problem turned out to be that they were over 1/2 inch wide but not 3/4 inch wide. You also can't have two colors so we couldn't just make them wider with a sharpie. The mom felt so bad that she drove an hour to the school got the paint, drove an hour back and made the numbers bigger. Hope she still volunteers next year. I know the rules are clear but no one caught the mistake.

Another team put on numbers from the hardware store. They were black and white and really easy to read. You can't have two colors so they had to take the numbers off, cut off all the white and put the numbers back on. At least the numbers were black so they could make them wider with a sharpie. Without the contrast it was hard to see them on the blue but they met the rules.

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Last year at NYC one team showed up with their KOP and a bunch of plywood. They refused to accept the help of us or any other team because they believed that every team was out to get them. They did however borrow a circular saw from one team.

Their mentor was cutting plywood with the circular saw and did not realize that the wire was on top of the piece of wood. When the saw stopped running he became very confused. The team who the saw was burrowed from was upset to say the least.

By the end of the day they had a drive train with some wooden thing on top that didn't really do anything but hold the balls in the bot the entire match. When they went to get their robot inspected I saw piles of saw dust in their pit, it was quite a site.

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I thought some of the bumper rules were too strictly enforced this year. Yes, I know the rules are very specific, but some of the things that were being enforced provided no advantage to the team that goofed them. One rule that got us was having the bumper flush with the exterior vertex of the robot. We added a 2" x 2" x 1/8" reinforcing plate to the outside of the frame on the front corners of our robot (we cracked a gusset after a hard landing), and the polycarb attached to the frame also covered the plates. The inspector said that since the polycarb was spaced out another 1/8" over the plates that defined our exterior vertex, so as it was the bumpers needed to move out another 1/8". The solution was simple, we just cut the polycarb that was covering the plates, but it just seemed like such a nitpicky thing.

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Are you sure this is a rule? I've seen more than one team run with a white number outlined in black, or a yellow number outlined in black, etc.

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At the NYC Regional this year, 2836's robot was fully assembled for the first time Thursday morning. First thing we did was throw it on the inspection scale- 124.1 pounds. We had anticipated being ~5 pounds overweight, and had the materials on hand to replace a number of steel pillow blocks and idler shafts with aluminum spares. All told, we ended up at 119.8 pounds in time for our first qualification match.

Over the course of the day, we tweaked a few things, adding and subtracting little parts here and there. To be prepared for the impending elimination match re-inspection Sunday, we weighed in again Saturday night (this being a Fri-Sat-Sun regional), and again were at 119.8.

So Sunday rolls around, and we make it to the elimination rounds. Being as far behind schedule as they were, event officials called for elimination robots to be quickly re-inspected- meaning a quick once over, and weight to be checked with batteries and bumpers installed.

The idea was, take the total weight of the robot, subtract the recorded weight for the bumpers (from the original inspection), and subtract a standard weight for the battery (something like 13.3 pounds). With bumper and "battery" weight subtracted, our robot was calculated to be 121.4 pounds.

Not understanding how we suddenly gained 1.6 pounds, I instructed our students to quickly remove the bumpers. Subtracting the "battery" weight still landed us at 121.4 pounds. I unplugged and removed the battery, and the scale fluctuated between 119.9 and 120.0 pounds.

Lesson learned- battery weight isn't always standard, especially if you have a decent length of 6 gauge wire with the Anderson connector attached.

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Outlining for contrast purposes is fine, as long as the number itself meets spec. Q&A from last week:http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=15079

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and this is what engineers need to worry about? sounds pretty sad if the rules are that picky

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And... last years bumpers. I remember seeing that this year too, one of 397's parents looked at it and got this confused look on their face.

2008 397 had problems with our launcher pushing our frame out of square. After 2 competitions where we were told that we didn't fit in the box (because the frame was off by 3 degrees) We walked to the inspection box with a hammer. Proud to say we it into the box quite well after a couple good whacks. (For anyone who didn't see that robot, its frame was made of bent 1" square tubing so it actually got unbent quite easily)

Speaking of weird looks, among the strangest looks I have ever gotten in FRC was when our forks in '08 got bent up. Ever see two people jumping on the robot to get the forks back in shape? Yup, it was fun. Turns out I don't weigh enough to do it though.

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I thought it wa vry petty also. Our robot used orange numerals painted over
slighty larger white numerals, at the Wisconsin Reginal. Th inspectors thought that it looked really sharp, but disallowed it, until we painted out the white.

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While walking through the pits talking to teams I happened to see 339's (our) driver and asked what all of the yelling was about. What started as "your wires are the wrong color" turned into a mess about voltage, gauge, and some obscure rule. In short, I ran away from that conversation.

Most of my inspection woes come from FTC (also 339) though. Here's a few:

- Our team number was just shy of being thick enough, they actually came out with a ruler and checked. We then were forced to outline the letters in ballpoint pen to get inspected.
- An inspector didn't believe we fit in the box, I got up and shook the box proving that the robot had not only fit, but had room on all sides. We ended up having to make it shorter anyway. :confused:
- At the FTC Virginia State Championship, one inspector was laughing and carrying on with me after we passed inspection and asked if I wouldn't mind giving one more demonstration of the shooter for a friend of his. It then fired outside of the allowed range and we had to get re-inspected.

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Exactly! Engineering is about the details. I hope that the engineer in training that will be designing the life support system that will save me in 10 years is a stickler for the details. I don't want the last words I hear to be "Picky Picky Picky."

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One year we were weighing in and the scale was bouncing between 120.0 and 120.1. After waiting about 30 seconds for the scale to "settle" and the behavior continuing the inspector just looked at us and said "The rules don't say how LONG it has to be at 120"

Once at San Jose the scale was on a basket ball floor. We put our robot on the scale and it was a couple of tenths over weight. The inspector pointed to a spot on the floor next to the scale and said "somebody stand right there". Viola! we dropped half a pound. Interestingly that robot dropped about 2.5 lbs between SanJose and Epcot. That crate sure must have been hot!

As a result I always make sure the scales are on concrete and calibrated.

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This year, we used duct tape to seal our suction system. So our mentor was still edgy on about the legality of Duct Tape, and to make sure that we weren't headed for trouble, I sent a couple of guys to ask the inspector if Duct Tape was legal. I was almost 100% sure that they would come back with a yes.

Imagine my surprise when they come back with a "No". So, the team leader and I walk over to the inspectors and graciously demanded to see the line number that outlaws duct tape.

Five minutes later we returned to the pits with a yes. :P

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A few year's ago, a inspector walked around our robot with a compass to find any electromagnetic emissions. Did he find any? No, but it remains to this day a good story.

-Tanner

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sorry- but this isn't a life support system. It is painted numbers on a bumper. I think there are far more important design issues that most of our teams need to worry about than whether the numbers are outlined or not.

and yes- this is ridiculously picky about a trivial item with nothing to do with the function of the game and represents just one more "gotcha" kind of thing for the kids to worry about. If there needs to be one exact set of specs for everything why don't we just get a prefab kit so the FIRST people will get the exact design they develop the rules for. It would save them the money for the Xerox Creativity Award.

WC :cool:

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We were weighing in towards the end of Wisconsin this year to see how much weight we could play with for upgrades. Apparently we were all of a sudden 20 pounds over. The inspectors realized that the air was compressed, so let that out and it dropped to ten pounds over weight...


Then the inspector took his foot off the scale. :)

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Actually, having a prefab kit for bumpers come in the KOP would be pretty handy. Or you know, getting rid of bumpers all together.

While I agree it is a trivial nit-picky type thing the rules clearly state it. I think many inspectors are being too lenient with bumper colors and contrast this year though. I have seen blue bumpers that I swear were black. I also saw bumpers that there was no contrast between the numbers and the bumper color. Im sorry but it really isn't that hard to make sure your numbers are easy to read and your bumpers are the right color.

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Awesome thread. :D

I must say, sometimes the inspectors are a little over their heads. Especially when they're younger and out to prove themselves. I understand rules are rules, but sometimes they push it, rules aside!

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The tricky part was for Chris to only let off some of the weight after I told you guys to let the air out...

And Kevin Kolodziej's reaction when you figured out what was going on was priceless :)

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In 2009, 339 mounted their battery and electronics on a pneumatic slide that would shift the entire assembly left or right six inches to decrease our moment of inertia when turning on the slippery field. We not only passed inspection, but won Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology...in Atlanta. :D

This is hilarious. Good to know inspectors have a sense of humor, too. The funny thing is, I probably would have been shocked: "I didn't know air weighed so much!" :p

It also reminds me of earlier this year when we weighed our crate. The rest of us had to leave the room to avoid bursting out laughing as we watched three engineers scratch their heads wondering how they had miscalculated the weight by 240 lbs, when one of them was standing inside the crate on the scale. :p

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The worst part? Kevin coming over to the pit to tell us all the (fake) bad news to stir us into a frantic rage.

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The tough part was Chris Paulik was laughing so hard but trying to hold it in, that the scale was actually moving around a pound or two. I kept telling the team that their robot appeared to be breathing and that they must have added a "foot" of something to the robot and they still didn't get it.
Well guys we got another one!

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I don't really have any crazy inspection stories but, In 2008 we got our first regional and were informed that all of our drive motors had been wired incorrectly... So, it took us about 2 hours to rewire everything before we could compete.

My favorite inspection moment ever was at the Championship in 2008. We put our robot on the scale and weighed 120.1 lbs. Before the inspector had a chance to say anything I ripped (zip tied on) a 12" x 8" piece of decorative lexan off of the back of the robot... We weighed 120 lbs even. (She then proceeded to tell me that the scales were slightly off and anything within a tenth of a pound was acceptable..)

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What rule says that? the only rule about bumper marking is:

If an inspector says something is illegal on your robot, it is your responsibility to confirm it. Ask the inspector (politely and respectfully) to show you the rule in question and explain how you violate that rule. If you don't agree with his or her interpretation, talk to the head inspector. If he agrees with the inspector, go fix your problem.

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

The inspector training material and the actual rules don't always match up 100%. Some of these issues stem from the training material being slightly out of date or different because of when it was written. If the inspector is not fully involved with a team build they may not realize some of these differences, but the published rules are the governing document per inspector training.

In the case of the number color issue though I believe that stemmed from a Q&A that most people didn't see.

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

I looked up the Q&A you mentioned, and it specifically allows the use of two colors (as long as the main color meets the size requirements). Again, all teams should be prepared to defend their position with documentation.

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I think my favorite was when I ran inspections at Championships in 2000. We sat down in our volunteers meeting at the end of the day Thursday to review everything and what needed to be done for tomorrow.
Eric from FIRST to me: "How are Inspections going?"
Me: "Good, we are done."
Eric from FIRST: "How many robots are left to finish inspecting?"
Me: "None"
Eric from FIRST: "Oh, how many are left for the morning?"
Me: "None, they are all inspected!"
Eric from FIRST *Baffled Look on his Face*
They had never finished ALL of the inspections on Thursday before!!

Second Favorite - I was an inspector at the Long Island Regional in 2001 and there was this crazy orange & black rookie team from Rochester NY that had THREE different robot configurations, they came up to do weight and size, and I had to figure out how to scribble all this on the inspection sheet. They put the last one in the box, and it was out by like 6 inches! Their crazy lead mentor :) tried kicking it and shoving it and pushing the box. I laughed and suggested they had time to go back and fix it. I think they came back 6 more times (made me laugh every time) before either giving up on it or just barely making it (Jason remind me!). At Championships they saw me walking by and wanted to grab me for a photo saying "I was their nicest robot inspector ever" or something like that. I still need to dig out a copy of that photo :)

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At GSR this year we were told by the inspector that we needed to have a sticker with our team name on it. He was misinterpreting <R14>, but to appease him (and to have a little fun) we took a band-aid from our first aid kit, stuck it on the robot, and wrote "Plan B" (our team name) on it.

... we passed inspection :D

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

No really 'crazy' stories here, though I can relate to Al's anecdote about using all 12-gauge wire just because we have a ton of it.

And we've definitely helped several teams put together their box on wheels. I originally thought someone was talking about 116's rookie year and their first trip to the Championships in Orlando. Here Dave recounts tales of doing just that (but for different reasons) and how a team helped them put it together.

2007, we were 0.1lbs under the limit. The inspector at VCU kept messing with us by tapping the robot, making it go over the limit by 0.1lbs.

In general in FTC, zipties and loose cords fail the sizing rules for teams just as much as teams who have frame members beyond 18". It's more of a "doh!" moment though.

DC Regional, 2010. The lead inspector told us his interpretation of the intent of the digitization of the BoM, which was so that FIRST could create statistics based upon usage and create next year's KOP accordingly. So as we were off to create an Excel file that would meet those implied needs, he tells us 'Just scan your paper copy in. They didn't specify what digital format!'

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

I'm pretty sure we can this year. Our robot only weighs about 83 pounds without them.

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The words "a contrasting color" are in the rule. Q&A referenced that rule and used the phrase "a single contrasting color", leading to the inspectors' interpretation that having a border of another color did not satisfy the rules.

A later Q&A made contrasting borders around the numbers okay.

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Thanks for finding that. I didn't have time to read through and see where that one came from even though I knew it had been clarified to allow the contrast.

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70lbs with both.

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You seriously need to add functionality... As long as you can do it in allowed build periods, of course!

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Not always. If the robot meets their goals why should they add functionality? I would prefer not to do something than to sacrifice doing something I already do. Now, perhaps improve functionality... You guys have a lot of weight to play with, why not make sure your kicker works better or your ball manipulator works great?

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Speed racer weighed 65lbs in the end and worked perfectly. Our team decided not to focus on hanging if it meant we would have mediocre ball kicking and handling. So we avoided it and still ended with a rather good robot.

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Lower weight can be a large part of your functionality if your function is to be very agile. It's all part of strategy. If you can outrun the big guys and do what you want then good for you.

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I was one of those SWAT members, They showed up weighing under 65 pounds and didn't even ship the robot, they just carried it in to the competition. I was waiting on them to hand them their schedule of practice matches and when they finally arrived I saw that the batter connector wasn't connected to the battery.

I asked them how it was supposed to run and the student there said that it ran great if you connected the motors directly to the leads of the battery...

The mentor had only brought 3 students because he read that was the maximum amount of students allowed to compete.

Thanks to an insane mount of help from Volunteers, local teams. I'd have to look back at the pictures to see which teams exactly were helping, I know 997, and 488, and the team across from them in the pits, this was a high number team, three thousand something, the name and number are still not coming to me. After many hours and more than a few trips to the machine shop they did end up competing and winning the rookie inspiration award.

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Correct! I was with the neighbors to the left (3210). I looked over a few times to see if they needed anything, but there were always a dozen+ people there! I was very impressed with how they did, but more so with the amount of people who helped out. Definitely GP at its finest.

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In 2007, our rookie year, somebody donated a 400 foot roll of green 14 gauge wire. We used it every place we could, including for four runs through our 5 foot arm. When our inspector said that the wire didn't meet the color coding requirements, we produced the rule he was referring to and pointed out that it only applied to wires on the input terminals of the speed controllers. He then decided that green wire wasn't allowable because green usually stands for ground. As a rookie team, we didn't know to escalate the problem to the lead inspector, and ended up rewiring the whole robot on practice day. Another team donated the ~50 feet of red and black wire. I wish we remembered which team that was so that we could thank them...

This was also the year that we assumed fitting in the sizing box meant fitting in the sizing box, not sitting in the sizing box without touching any of the walls. That was fun.

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

I was there for that. There robot looked like a mini-fridge. We felt so bad when they saw what there weight was.

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We passed inspection on the first try of our rookie year.

Not to incredibly crazy but its a story.

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My story is a little, actually quite, different than most of these. I've probably mentioned it once or twice in a couple different threads, so please bare with me (or just stop reading) if I'm repeating myself.

My senior year with 116, we were well on our way to passing inspection (on our first try, no less). Our inspector was talking to another inspector, who specialized in electronics. They asked us politely if we could take a short break in the inspection...
...so they could photograph our electronics layout.

It was, without a doubt, the single moment that has made me the most proud of any robot I've built in FIRST. More proud than when we won the FIRST Vex Challenge pilot in 2005. More proud than when the robot they pictured went further in Atlanta than we've ever gone before. Even more proud than when a rookie team came up to our bot to admire the engineering.

...and I didn't even work on the electronics. :o

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

I remember that bot. It's why we started using Mini Andersons for everything. That change has made a world of difference in how easy it is to layout a board, integrate mechanisms, and move an electronic component if necessary. Those have also been huge in easing the pain of quickly wiring pneumatic valves, test motors, etc -- there's never a mix-up of putting two female ends together, red to black, etc.

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Not necesarrily having to do with the robot...

my first and only trip to Atlanta (2005), while having our robot inspected, one of the inspectors had a laugh about my hair (i had my mohawk spiked at the time), with the comment "time for a trim!". He pulled out some small scissors, and we kind of laughed. He then cut part of my hair off.

I don't know if he thought it wasn't real or what, but that was a very big deal. It wasn't a few millimeters like a trim would be, it was an inch or more at the back of my head...when you hold the world record by a few inches, every little bit counts. A few people from FIRST came over to our pit later to apologize, and the inspector did the same later that day.

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

Would you mind posting a link to that picture (or a similar one)? My team's electronics layout sucked this year - when a relay failed, we simply added a new one because the old one was impossible to access - and I need to show them an example of how to do it right. :)

Re: Crazy Robot Inspection Stories
 

I once saw a robot wired entirely with green wire (which, stranger still, wasn't one of thier team colors).

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I can't find a great picture of the 2007 iteration, but here is a thread about the 2005 version (note this post about the 2007 version). And here you can see it in the 2007 robot, and here you can see it unfolded (before the wires were fully cleaned up).