Quote:
Originally Posted by Duncan Macdonald
I don't think anyone can speak for 399 teams.
I believe the point being made was that everyone at the championship has passed inspection somewhere. I wouldn't advocate removing inspection but would be comfortable playing with and against robots that passed a condensed checklist. There was concern about how taxing the new schedule was on the volunteers is worth considering.
|
Just curious, do you have specific suggestions as to what might be feasible to remove from the inspection checklist? I would be fine with the B.O.M. disappearing but what else might anyone have in mind that would speed the up the inspection process? Everyone wants to get teams as many matches as possible with the least amount of stress placed on the volunteer base.
Every year at Champs I have seen at least one robot over size or over weight. Hopefully all 400 teams will prove me wrong this year.
One would think bumpers should be nailed down by the time you get to Champs but every year I see bumpers still falling off on the field because they were not "securely attached". Inspectors don't want to see teams getting G20 penalties because of something the inspectors could have helped with in the pits.
We have to look out for safety. That's always priority #1 so all those things need to be looked at so this begets a pretty thorough look at all those ball launchers and pneumatic systems. We sure don't want robots catching fire either so we need to trace down those wires and look at wire gauge vs. breaker size. I'll give you wire color.
Every year inspectors still find Globe motors and other illegal motors at Champs. Is everyone OK with that or should we continue to check for illegal motors and legal quantities of legal motors?
Every year I find teams still using a 20A fuse in their compressor Spike. Nope, it's not a rule that you must change it out to a 20A circuit breaker but part of the inspectors job is to help teams out and we try to point out useful stuff like this.
I could go on and on but my point is the inspectors are there to help teams, do our best to flag safety concerns, and to make sure everyone is playing within the rules as best as we can. We all miss things but the more inspections you go through the more stuff we can find and the more we can help. Your team might not need the help but there are plenty there that do and appreciate it. If you build your robot 100% compliant during build season an experienced Championship level inspector should be able to blow through your inspection in almost no time. I can't really think of much on the inspection check list I would like to cut out but if someone want's to come up with a list and valid reasons why those items are not necessary please put it forward and I can guarantee we will at least consider it in the future. Just not this week.