[Chris is me]

At BAE, our students were told by safety judges that we MUST yell "ROBOT!!!" in the pits while walking. On our team we follow the lead of many teams whom have posted in this thread - one member of our drive team walks ahead of the robot cart and politely asks people to move to the side so our robot can get through. When this explanation wouldn't satisfy the safety judges, two mentors from our team had to step in and explain that shouting "ROBOT!!!" was against our team's code of conduct and that we would not be shouting it during the competition. They were still adamant about it, but we kept doing it our way regardless. Probably didn't help our Safety Award chances one bit, but we would rather be professionals. At least they didn't physically blockade the robot like at some other regionals.

The practice certainly shouldn't be mandatory. Not sure if it should be outright banned (maybe occasionally shouting IS the only way to get through a particularly tricky situation quickly, I don't know), but it's a stupid idea to enforce its practice and the more you hear "robot" at competition, the more you tune it out.

Also, the idea that the Bill of Rights prevents a private organization from asking someone attending their controlled event not to shout a word? That is just stupid. The Bill of Rights / First Amendment prevents the government from restricting free expression - it does not mean no one can ever ask you to not say anything in any public or private venue. It certainly doesn't protect speech from being frowned upon either.