[Mr V]

Originally Posted by khanh111

The Pacific Northwest is switching to a district model this year. Two main changes to bag n' tag will apply for us. These are in the interest of saving time that would otherwise be used on competition day.

1. There will be FIRST-certified inspectors who can inspect your robots and tell you the issues.

2. Teams will have 6 hours, divided up into a max of three individual instances, where they can unbag the robot and work on it.

The district model is still being refined, so these may change slightly, but I've posted the gist of it.

1. This is something that the PNW district has asked for, it is still under consideration by FIRST headquarters.

2. The 6 hour un-bag time in the week preceding your district events was what was done last season in FiM and MAR. The minimum un-bag time is 2hrs per opening of the bag. So you could do 3-2 hr sessions, 2-3hr, 1-4hr + 1-2hr or 1-6hr. This is unlikely to change as it represents a change from the 8hr un-bag time that was used in the first years of the FiM district.

Originally Posted by DampRobot

So, just to be clear, the inspectors inspect your robot while it would normally be bagged, or the inspectors make sure it's bagged and unbagged for the right lengths of time?

This would be an additional un-bagged time in which teams are not allowed to do any work on the robot, nor power it up other than as necessary for inspection, for example to verify proper operation of a pneumatics system.

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

So, if I'm reading this correctly, it's an opportunity to use your 6 hour unbag time(which existed in FiM and MAR) and go to a predetermined location where you can (essentially) go through a preliminary, unofficial inspection by official FIRST inspectors?

As mentioned above it is in addition to the 6hrs of un-bag time to work on the robot.

What the PNW district is proposing that we would come up with a number of places where teams could bring their robot to have it officially pre-inspected, it would be done by official FIRST inspectors and the document would then be brought to the event where the inspection would be completed. The goal would be to catch potential problem areas so team can use some of their 6hr un-bag time to fix problems.

Since the goal is for all districts to have the same rules, starting this season, I would fully expect all districts to have this option IF FIRST approves of it.