Quote:
Originally Posted by rich2202
Before seeing your response, I adjusted the paraphrase a little, but to me the signal was what I originally wrote.
This is my first year inspecting. At the Regional, the Lead RI said our priorities, in order, are: 1) Compete; 2) Safely; and 3) In compliance. So, help teams to compete safely, and then worry about compliance. When asked about the Championship, the response was: Since teams have already competed (at a Regional), the emphasis is then on Safety and Compliance.
When Al gave the speech at the 2:00 Wednesday inspector meeting, I distinctly remember getting the same impression of inspections as I had for the Regional (the top priority is to let the teams compete). He did go on to talk about the RI's being there to help a robot to become safe and compliant, but at no time were we charged with making sure that each robot was safe AND in full compliance.
Note: If a robot is safe AND compliant, then it is free to compete. As soon as deference is given to competing (which is the signal I got from Al), then safety and/or compliance can be sacrificed for competition.
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I'm with Chuck on this one, and it's something I've discussed with others before - at champs, the intensity of inspection goes up, not down. This is the "big show", which means teams need to get things fixed. It also means that we sit in their pit and help them fix it if needed. I'm not aware of ANY team at champs that had compliance issues yet was allowed to compete, and I got to do a 2-minute look over of most of the robots in Galileo while I was helping to run the scale and size the robots. (Pro tip - someone experienced can look at a lot of the inspection areas while running the tape around the robot - it gives us a chance to walk all the way around, looking into things, and get a feel for what areas are going to need a closer look)
At regionals before, I've let teams compete with something a little out of compliance in order to fix a safety issue - but those teams were well aware that, if they won, I would be stopping by their pit at champs to make sure whatever it was got into compliance.
Big Al asks every LRI attending champs to bring our black vests (otherwise, I'd leave it at home and give my shoulders a rest - that thing is heavy!). He doesn't do it to puff us up or make us feel important. He does it because teams respect the vest, it gives us more authority working with teams, and it sends a message to teams that things are more intense. I can't count the number of times I've been walking around the pits and had to stop and do a double take, then talk with a team to get something fixed... After you get some experience, your eyes just start to jump things out at you, and that's amplified x10 for the LRI's who spend 4 months every year thinking about the rules, answering questions from area teams, pre-inspecting during the build season to help teams find problems early, etc.