Quote:
Originally Posted by BrendanB
Well said Allen!
I still think the issue of working on the robot can be easily worked around: one volunteer writes down the tag number for each team's bag as it walks in the door during load in and does a quick bag inspection. This is just like we've always done it and it can be done by one inspector on the first night. Thursday morning when the entire inspection staff is there goes around to verify the same tag is on the bag and the bag is still intact. This is not hard to implement.
If we really allow teams to get to work on their robots straight off the bat on Thursday morning you will see inspections start sooner, more teams will be able to practice, keep the field open for longer on Thursday, and the level of competition at events will increase as well. This benefits a lot of teams!
|
Thursday morning is when us LRI's train the inspectors. I usually have 2-3 inspectors who I'm confident know what they're doing taking care of Bag and Tag stuff, while all the other inspectors are huddled up with me being trained on what to look for - I can't afford to have all my inspectors checking tags on robots that were already loaded in, and helping other teams load in... we wouldn't be able to get to the training until later, and that would push back when we could start inspecting robots.
From my experience, setting up the pit is not the reason we have trouble getting everyone inspected. With a few exceptions, almost every pit I've seen can be set up in 15 mins or less. The issue with inspections are teams that show up late, teams that haven't finished building their robot, veteran teams that are too self-assured and just put it off because they can and teams that are focused on functionality (usually programming).
I know I've seen my own team work on autonomous programming until 4PM before they've finally gotten sick of me asking when they're going to get inspected and they actually start their inspection. It's not a question of teams not having enough time, and honestly... if we let teams set up earlier it won't help with inspections - work expands to fill available time. It's a question of priorities, and teams mistakenly see other items as being more important than passing inspection.