If you mean does it have to ship with the robot to your venue, it appears It does not if you have an FTC team bring it. I am not sure if an FRC team brings the Minibot, that it would be acceptable.
Need to Q&A FIRST
See blue box at 4.3.15 in the manual. Here is the text:
MINIBOT use is independent of the ROBOT inspection. For example, any FTC team can bring a MINIBOT to an event, get it inspected, and if legal, that MINIBOT can compete with any FRC ROBOT (that has passed ROBOT inspection). There are legal HOSTBOTS and legal MINIBOTS; they are independent of each other regarding inspection.
Any other thoughts on this would be welcome.
