Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik
On the topic of inspectors giving more detailed and exacting inspections to robots that "stretch the rules" regarding bumpers:
Do you inspectors actually have differing levels of inspection for different robots that you like or don't like? ...
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Prior to competing in robotics, I led a high school electrathon race car team. While discussing vehicle tech inspections with a high school drag race team, the high school drag racing coach told me about the importance of washing and polishing the car before tech inspection. The first benefit was that it made sure that everyone went over the car carefully, but the second benefit, as he saw it, was more significant...
"When the inspector approaches the car, from fifty feet away, they can see that it shines. They can see that we take pride in the car and care about little details. By the time we pop the hood and they look at the clean, shiny engine, they are already thinking 'this team has it together'!"
Did they still get inspected? Yes. Did they still have to meet all the rules? Yes. But the difference was that the inspector expected them to pass from the moment they laid eyes on the car.
It probably shouldn't make a difference... but we're all human and all subject to 'first impressions'. Thankfully FRC has some good processes in place to help ensure a level playing field... the inspection checklist, a well-developed set of rules, and a good Q&A system. Perhaps more importantly is that there is one Lead Robot Inspector at each event who works to ensure uniform inspection processes and correct rule interpretations.
So I think I speak on behalf of many inspectors when I say that we look for the same things on every robot... but that the inspection can go much more quickly when teams have clearly met all the criteria and laid it out in a logical, tidy, organized way for everyone to see, rather than having a tangled mess of unlabled wires jumbled together with pneumatics lines buried underneath an opaque panel.
The goal, after all, is to see everyone compete, with a safe, reliable robot that meets all the rules.
But you already know all that... and I get the point that you're making that everyone should have the same "level" of inspection... I think the point that the previous inspector was making was that just as teams can do things to make inspection go efficiently, there are things that they can do that make it take longer.
Jason